The Globe and Mail Published April 12, 2021 There have been three major stock market crashes so far this century. The first was the dot-com bubble, which burst around this time of the year in 2000. By the time the plunge ended in October, 2002, the Nasdaq had fallen 78 per cent and the stocks had lost US$5-trillion in value. The second collapse was the financial crisis of 2007-09. This one almost took down the entire global banking system. Only massive government bailouts saved many of the world’s biggest financial institutions from going under (Canada’s banks were able to survive without Ottawa’s help). That one wiped out US$8-trillion in market value before hitting bottom in March, 2009. The Dow and the S&P 500 each lost more than half their value during that time.