Black Monday, 25 years on: so what's changed?

Twenty-five years ago yesterday the stock market suffered what then seemed an extraordinary catastrophe. If Black Monday seemed shocking then, recent events – banking and financial crises that have raised the prospect that entire continents may go bust – suggest it was just one of those things.

The FTSE 100 fell dramatically, to about 1,730. Today it is around 5,900. Perhaps what this tells us is that when it comes to supposedly disastrous days on the stock market, what we should really do is this: take the long view. Don't worry. In 10 years' time, the country will be richer than it is now.