You want a real crisis?

Tom Stevenson in the Telegraph today reviews the new book A History of the London Stock Market 1945-2007, and puts the current market volatility in some perspective-

The year 1974 opened with a sky-high oil price, miners and rail workers on strike, a million laid off as energy-starved industries cut production and sterling in free-fall. NUM vice-president Mick McGahey called on troops who had been drafted in to keep coal moving to remember their working-class roots and defy orders. Tony Benn plotted state intervention in Britain's biggest companies while Denis Healey promised to squeeze the rich until the pips squeaked. Both NatWest and Lloyds fell below their par values and by the end of the year the FT30 had fallen 70pc below its May 1972 high.