My wife Susie and I were walking down the beach last weekend discussing “Black Monday”. We were discussing the amount and percentage of that drop and comparing it to what is going on in today’s economy. We talked about what had happened then, and the differences in then and now.

On Friday October 16, 1987, the Dow dropped over 100 points. Of course, that’s just a blink of an eye today, but at the time the Dow Jones Industrial Average was just above 2,200. The 100 point drop had people talking about the stock market everywhere we went that weekend.

I remember thinking at the time, although it was a big drop - about 4.5%, when Monday morning came, things would get back on an even keel, and “the market” would begin its climb back. Well needless to say I was wrong, really wrong. It seems that not only everywhere my wife and I had been over the weekend everyone was talking about the market, everywhere everyone went, they and everyone else was also talking about the market.

Back then, it seemed like Monday morning would never come. As stock brokers we had witnessed the market close above 1,000 for the first time in several years, in 1982. In the next five years it had more than doubled which was an incredible return. Now, as brokers, we all had a strong confidence that the 100 points lost on Friday would easily be made up, and then some, on Monday.

Well of course, that didn’t happen. As a matter of fact the New York Stock Exchange was open for less than an hour and WHAM! Down over 100 more points. And that was only the beginning, by the end of the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped another 500 plus points. Monday October 19, 1987, became known as “Black Monday”. Think of it, people who were fully invested in the stock market lost as much as 25% of their net worth practically overnight.

Some changes in regulations were made as a result of “Black Monday”. These were changes made to prevent that from ever happening again. But to look where we are today, one must wonder, what happened?

Back then, it didn’t take long for the market to regain momentum and close above 2,000 again. It did take the overall economy a period of time to stabilize. New regulations boosted confidence in the “system” and as a result there was more order in the financial markets. From then until now is much different.

From then until now, there is increased greed on Wall Street. Regulations have become less restrictive, the value of the dollar has fallen dramatically, real estate values which tumbled over a year ago haven’t begun to recover, and foreclosures are at all time highs. Now we also have a $700,000,000,000.00 bailout which essentially forces us to pick up the tab for corporate America’s excesses and regulator’s failure to recognize the problems long before now.

Although the Federal Government doesn’t like to mention it, we are in a recession. I also feel that we are going to see the situation reaching more and more households. We may also see more bank failures, job losses, and more foreclosures. With more and more dollars circulating almost on a daily basis, your purchasing power is declining steadily as well.

Its important to address these two questions. First, haven’t you seen this coming for some time? And, more importantly, what have you done, and what are you doing to secure your and your family’s financial future?