The October 1987 stock market crash ‐ten years on

Abstract

This article was presented originally as the introductory paper to the seventh annual Sir Alec Cairncross Seminar, which was held at Barclays Bank, Lombard Street, London, on Tuesday, 14 October 1997. Much of the interrogatory tone of the original has been retained. It traces the international circumstances which led to the 1987 stock market crash and then poses a series of questions which will need to be considered if a better understanding of British policy‐making in the 1980s is to be achieved.