A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History

The definitive history of the 1987 market crash known as Black Monday, by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Wizard of Lies: “Compelling.” —Burton Malkiel, The Wall Street Journal

On October 19, 1987, the Dow fell 22.6 percent—almost twice as bad as the worst day of 1929, and equal to a one-day loss of nearly 10,000 points today. Black Monday was more than seven years in the making and threatened nearly every US financial institution. Drawing on superlative archival research and dozens of original interviews, Diana B. Henriques weaves a tale of missed opportunities, market delusions, and destructive actions that stretched from the “silver crisis” of 1980 to turf battles in Washington, a poisonous rivalry between the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the almost-fatal success of two California professors whose idea for reducing market risk spun terribly out of control. As the story hurtles forward, the players struggle to forestall a looming market meltdown and unexpected heroes step in to avert total disaster.

For decades, investors, regulators, and bankers have failed to heed the lessons of 1987, even as the same patterns have resurfaced, most spectacularly in the financial crisis of 2008. A First-Class Catastrophe offers a new way of looking not only at the past, but at our financial future.

“A valuable and unfailingly interesting account of a crucial two-decade period in Wall Street history. . . . A highly intelligent and perceptive analysis.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A first-class cautionary tale that should be on every financial regulator’s and policy-maker’s desk—and many an investor, too.” —The Washington Post

“A fast-paced thriller . . . the book is much more than financial history. It is a tale of unheeded warnings and misguided confidence that is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the fault lines in our modern markets came to be.” —Bethany McLean, New York Times–bestselling coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room

© 2024 Henry Holt and Co. (E-bog): 9781627791656

Release date

E-bog: 2. juli 2024