Forget about NSE 2008 crash; here are the biggest stock market crashes in world history

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The Nigerian Stock Exchange crash of year 2008 is like a pond wave when compared with the Japanese Nikkei tsunami and many other stock market crashes.

To make this easy and entertaining to read, I'll use a bulleted list.

So here we go -

• In the year 1637 in Holland, many people went bankrupt and the economy went into a depression when the booming market for tulip bulbs went bust. Like in Nigeria, people sold their lands, family inheritance and valuables to speculate in the booming tulip bulb market. At a time one tulip bulb (a small flower) exchanged for 4 fat oxen, 80 suits of clothes, 12 fat sheep, a pure silver drinking cup, or a complete bed. You can read more about it on Wikipedia
• There was a time in Britain when barbing salons, hairdressing salons, pure water companies and association of gardeners were selling shares to the public. And when everything went bust, even the renowned scientist and analysis guru, Sir Isaac Newton, lost an equivalent of over $300,000,000. People went from rag to riches, and the lucky ones went back to rags while the others went to their graves.
• We've all heard about the Great Depression, the stock market crash of 1929 in America. What you've probably not heard is that several people people committed suicide, and some chose to do this by jumping down from tall buildings.
• In August 1982 in Kuwait, the stock exchange crashed and lost an equivalent of $90,000 per citizen. It's perhaps the greatest bubble in human history. Over $91,000,000,000 was wiped out in hours. The entire gulf region went into a recession.
• In 1989 in Japan, the land on which Tokyo's Imperial Palace stands was valued at a price that could buy all the land in California and still leave enough to buy some choice properties in Las Vegas. By the year 1992, the Japanese stock market had lost over 60% of it's value. And there was a 20 years long recession, popularly referred to as the lost decades.

And those are the world's greatest stock market crashes.

If you ask for my opinion, I'll say we are very lucky in Nigeria. And I'm gearing up for the next bubble.