It's Official - This is Now the Worst Market Crash on Record

At one point today, the Dow traded at less than half of its value on May 2, 2008. That's a 50% fall in just over 10 months.

This crash is only rivaled by 1929 and the NASDAQ crash earlier in the decade. But, this is the worst because of the trajectory, the magnitude and the breadth.

During the Great Depression of 1929, the stock market fell substantially and quickly from its September 3, 1929 peak of 381 to its November 13, 1929 intermediate bottom just under 200. But, it bounced back to almost 300, before beginning an incremental slid that would take it down as much as 89% by July 1932. However, at no point was the Dow ever down more than 50% in a 12 month period. Not only is the trajectory today worse, but the breadth is worse - Americans in 2007 and early 2008 were all heavily exposed to the stock market, having been taught to believe that nothing like the Great Depression would ever happen again and that we needed to stay in the market to secure our retirements and our futures.

The NASDAQ crash of 2000-2002 brought the NASDAQ down more than 50% from March 2000 to December 2000, and ultimately down over 70% to its July 2002 low. This crash was particularly painful for those of us who were so heavily invested in technology and the internet, but it wasn't as broad based as the current crash, especially since many folks didn't have much exposure to the technology sector.

The 1907 and 1987 crashes were severe, and markets fell precipitously in both cases over very short periods. However, in neither case, did they ever fall more than 25%, and in both cases the market had actually recovered almost completely 12 months later in both cases.

Today, this became the worst stock market crash in history.

Thanks Barack.