When the stock market began its collapse in September 1929, the aggregate value of all shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was approximately $90 billion.⁽⁵⁾ By 2000 NYSE capitalization had grown to nearly $12.4 trillion.⁽⁶⁾ Perhaps most remarkably in 2000 over $2.3 trillion in new securities was sold in some 16,481 corporate underwritings and 3,540 private placements.⁽⁷⁾

Underlying these remarkable numbers was the longest sustained bull market in United States history. Focusing on year-end closing indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from 875 in 1981 to 11,497 in 1999, paralleling similar surges in other leading composite indexes.⁽⁸⁾ To put this in other terms, between 1981 and 1999, the NYSE stock market capitalization increased nearly 11 fold from $1.1 to $12.3 trillion.⁽⁹⁾