Comparing Crashes: This One’s Worse Than ‘87

With today’s further decline - as I write this the Nasdaq Composite is now down another 86 points, or 5.2%, to 1,559 - the index has tumbled 45% since peaking at 2859 last Halloween. I think we can all agree that a 45% decline qualifies as a market crash, can’t we?

In fact, this decline is actually worse than the roughly 36% decline on the Nasdaq from peak to trough in 1987, but not nearly so bad as the 78% nightmare from 5048 on March 10, 2000 to 1114 on October 9, 2002.

Still, it is startling that the current crisis is now worse - considerably worse, in fact - than what happened in 1987. And we’re hardly out of the woods. Next week, earnings season begins in earnest, and it is not going to be pretty. While analysts are scrambling to bring down numbers, consensus forecasts for many companies are still likely too high. The interesting question: at what point will inv