In another comparative article in the Financial Times Historical Archive, the author discusses bear markets in relation to the Wall Street Crash. “Investors can learn a lot – and fear the worst – from examining the characteristics of past bear trading,” argues Vincent Boland, the FT’s Capital Markets Editor at the time the article was written (2002). A bear market is when a market experiences prolonged price declines, with the prices of securities falling by more than 20 percent amid widespread negative investor sentiment and fear. The examples that are used within this article are “the Japanese bubble of the 1980s and the Nikkei’s collapse in 1990s; and the technology boom and bursting of the 1990s Nasdaq bubble”. As well as looking further back in time to make comparisons with the Wall Street Crash, these articles provide interesting food for thought and insight into economies recovering after the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Wall Street Crash is still considered a benchmark. It is a level of economic failure that you do not want to go below, or the state of the market is considered in severe decline. One article from the Financial Times Historical Archive called "A Year of Living Exuberantly" is one example of the prevalence of the use of the Wall Street Crash as a point of comparison or indicator of failure, saying: “In China the Shenzhen B index recorded a gain of 210 per cent after April 1. Before plunging 10 per cent on Monday as the People’s Daily warned of a repeat of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.”

The material in Gale Primary Sources shows how economic analysts, editors and commentators are frequently looking to past economic situations, cycles and trends to be able to shed light on – and deeper analyse – the current situation, suggesting primary sources can be of as much use to Economics and Business students as History students.