By David Stockman
David Stockman's Contra Corner
October 3, 2026
Black Monday's 23% collapse of the stock market came on October 19, 1987.
We happen to recall this event vividly because when the market was experiencing its sizzling morning plunge on that day, we were speaking to a large auditorium of Salomon Brothers clients; and it was during the days before cell phones, at that.
Yet we had barely gotten wound up with dire talk of the fiscal disaster we had left behind in Washington when the room was soon abuzz; then it was roaring with desperate conversation; and finally, it just emptied itself in droves.