The overall consequences of the 1987 crash for the U.S. economy were remarkably limited. Central parts of the financial system broke down, but only briefly. The rise in stock prices of the 1980s was reversed only temporarily (the 1990s were to see an extraordinary boom), and even in the short run the effects of the reversal on the wider economy were not huge. The crash did have its effects, and those effects have persisted, but they are not evident on the surface.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 894