There are only few measures to prevent the type of crash that occurred in the stock market in the year 1929 or in 1987. The biggest question is can their be another crash? Or will the measures adopted really work? No one knows the answers for sure, but it is reasonable to assume that many people in this industry are working everyday to make sure that the disaster is not repeated again.

The stock market crash in the year 2000-2002 was quite painful, but if you think it was big enough, see the list of the ten worst crashes. It barely made to the list of the ten worst markets crashes in U.S. history.

Worst Stock Market Crash Ever:

Date Started: 4/17/1930
Date Ended: 7/8/1932

Total Days: 813
Starting DJIA: 294.07
Ending DJIA: 41.22
Total Loss: -86.0%

Investors lost 86% of their money over this 813 day beast. If you had $1000 on 9/3/1929 (beginning of the 4th worst crash, it would have gone down to a whopping $108.14 by July 8th, 1932 (end of the worst crash) or an 89.2% loss.

2nd Worst Stock Market Crash:

Date Started: 3/10/1937
Date Ended: 3/31/1938

Total Days: 386
Starting DJIA: 194.40
Ending DJIA: 98.95
Total Loss: -49.1%

Investors thought the market was finally good again, following a recovery of almost half of the great depression losses, the market plunged again due to war scare and Wall Street scandals.

3rd Worst Stock Market Crash:

Date Started: 1/19/1906
Date Ended: 11/15/1907

Total Days: 665
Starting DJIA: 75.45
Ending DJIA: 38.83
Total Loss: -48.5%

This crash was called the “Panic of 1907.” The U.S. Treasury department bought 36 million dollars worth of government bonds to offset the decline

4th Worst Stock Market Crash :

Date Started: 9/3/1929
Date Ended: 11/13/1929

Total Days: 71
Starting DJIA: 381.17
Ending DJIA: 198.69
Total Loss: -47.9%

It was the shortest market crash observed but the effects were deadly. Investors saw almost half their money disappear in just two months. Often this crash is the worst in most people’s minds.

The 5th worst stock market crash:

Date Started: 11/3/1919
Date Ended: 8/24/1921

Total Days: 660
Starting DJIA: 119.62
Ending DJIA: 63.9
Total Loss: -46.6%

This crash followed a post war boom (Stock prices rose 51%). After the crash bottomed out in August of 1921, this decade saw tremendous growth in the stock market and the economy (often called the roaring twenties).

6th Worst Stock Market Crash:

Date Started: 6/17/1901
Date Ended: 11/9/1903

Total Days: 875
Starting DJIA: 57.33
Ending DJIA: 30.88
Total Loss: -46.1%

DJIA records are not available before 1900. Take a look at the following facts to draw perspective of what things were like during this period.

• Life expectancy in the U.S. was 47
• Only 14% of homes had a bathtub
• Maximum speed limit in most cities was 10mph
• Average wage was 22 cents and hour - avg salary/year was about $300
• More than 95% of all births took place at home
• Only 6% of the population had graduated from High School
• The #1 cause of death was Pneumonia and Influenza
• The American flag had 45 stars

7th Worst Stock Market Crash:

Date Started: 1/11/1973
Date Ended: 12/06/1974

Total Days: 694
Starting DJIA: 1051.70
Ending DJIA: 577.60
Total Loss: -45.1%

This was another long market crash and people have remembered it for a long time. Think about the Vietnam and the Watergate scandal during this time.

8th Worst Stock Market Crash:

Date Started: 9/12/1939
Date Ended: 4/28/1942

Total Days: 959
Starting DJIA: 155.92
Ending DJIA: 92.92
Total Loss: -40.4%

It took nearly 3 years to recover from this crash! With WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor, the markets had a very tough time.

9th Worst Stock Market Crash:

Date Started: 11/21/1916
Date Ended: 12/19/1917

Total Days: 393
Starting DJIA: 110.15
Ending DJIA: 65.95
Total Loss: -40.1%

The market during this period suffered about a 40% loss. It’s difficult to break even after a 40% loss. On a $1,000 investment, your portfolio went down to $600. To get back to $1,000, it would have to go up 66.7%!

10th Worst Stock Market Crash:

Date Started: 1/15/2000
Date Ended: 10/9/2002

Total Days: 999
Starting DJIA: 11,792.98
Ending DJIA: 7,286.27
Total Loss: -37.8%

This crash required the longest recovery time of all crashes in this list. The combination of the tech bubble bursting and the September 11th terrorist attack served a deadly blow to the stock market, but relative to markets past, this was a minor one.

Stock market falls in front of Thanksgiving Day about the worries of Mortgage Market and the high oil price. Wall Street restarted its journey on Wednesday because of the dropping mortgage market. Dow Jones Industrial average and S&P both fell by more than 1.5 percent, Dow Jones index dropped by 210 points and ends up at 12,799.04. S$P dropped by 22.93 and ends up at 1.416.77. And the Nasdaq index down by 34.66 or 1.33 percent and finished at 2,562.15.

The stock market is in negative mood for the year because of the decline in the S&P index. Many investment policies and the value of the mutual fund is dependent on S&P. The investors are shifting to the Govemment securities for safety. For the first time since 2005 the yield of Treasury’s 10-year note dropped by 4 percent. The stock market has been dropping for several days because the investors are gauging about the reaction of the companies after the slowness in the U.S. mortgage and housing market. People worried about the recent credit market and the increasing price of oil, the oil price has raised to $99 a barrel.

Loan can be termed in other word as debt. It is the redistribution of financial assets between lenders and borrowers. The circle goes in this way, the borrower receives money from lenders and they pay back to the lenders with some additional cost which is known as interest. Contractual agreement between lender and borrower makes a loan secured.

It is the principal tasks of the financial institutions to act as a provider or lender of loans. It is always important to raise the money supply in a nation and the bank or other financial institutions are playing that role.

Types:

Generally loans are categorized in two parts:

• Secured loans
• Unsecured loans

Secured:

Secured loan can be defined as “a loan in which the lender or borrower pledges assets like property, land, home, car etc. as collateral.”

Mortgage loan is one of the most common and popular types of secured loan which individuals used to purchase home. The financial institutions are given the license to repossess the housing and sell it to recover the due amount if the borrowers are unable to pay off the full amount of loan. Car loan is another type of well known secured loan, but its duration is much shorter than housing loan.

Unsecured:

Unsecured loan can be defined as “It is a loan which is not secured against any assets of the borrower.” Unsecured loans are available in the financial market in the form of different marketing packages like:

• Credit card
• Personal loan
• Bank overdraft etc.

The interest rates on these loans vary from lender to lender. These loans may not be regulated by any law.

Some Abuses of loan:

Predatory lending: One of the popular abuses is predatory lending. It works in this way; lenders put the borrower in a position from where they take advantage over the borrower.

Loan shark: It is known as loan shark when the moneylenders are not authorized. That means loan shark is nothing but a lender who offers illegal unsecured loan and with high rate of interest.

Usury: When any unsecured loans are given at excessive interest it is called usury.

The Federal Reserve is just a name on dollar to Most of the Americans. They don’t know the act of the Central Bank (Federal Reserve) to the economy of USA. If you want to know about Federal Reserve and its act on money, banking and to the economy then you must watch this video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-466210540567002553

Today’s small debt can turn into big ones if you are not conscious enough. Usually it can be seen that in festive season people spend lot more than their affordability. Many marketplace and shopping malls offer special festival discounts to the customers and these discounts make people pay out more using credit cards and other cards.

Many young especially students are not getting proper financial advice from their parents regarding personal finance. Due to this problem they found themselves in debt problem every now and then. There are many financial advisors and debt management companies who offer free consultation. So if you are in this category then you can have free advice from this companies or organizations.

Huge amount of credit card bills and unsecured loans against your name can create lots of difficulties if you don’t have the ability to pay them on time. So if you are having problem of this kind then it can be advised that you should consolidate all your credit card bills and unsecured loans into one monthly payment. In this way you don’t have to pay all your creditors differently, which will make your life lots of good. Some times debt consolidation loans can help you but you need to remember that if you default in payment of this loan then you will be in deep trouble. So it’s better to opt for debt consolidation service rather than a loan. Suppose you are not in a position to pay all your debts with monthly payment then you can look for debt settlement which shortens your total debt to near about 50%. But it is always better to adjust your lifestyle according to your earning to make your life debt free.