The events of September 1986 were followed by another sharp decline on January 23, 1987, but those falls seemed minor reversals in a prolonged international bull market that saw the S&P 500 index almost triple between 1982 and September 1987, with a similar rise in London and an even greater rise in Tokyo. The demons of the 1970s high inflation, oil shocks, bitter labor disputes, stagnation seemed to be receding, banished by liberalized markets, monetarism, Reaganism, Thatcherism, and by the vogue for aggressive financial management, exemplified by the audacious acquisitions of big, staid corporations by raiders with good access to the market in "junk" (lowerthan-investment-grade) bonds.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 816