The Crash: After The Fall

Decades have a way of crashing to a close during the blink of an hour. The '60s ended at Altamont, when a knife-and-death climax to a Rolling Stones concert showed that the decade of love, peace and music had trouble, even with the music. The '70s limped along with an inner-directed malaise until Jan. 20, 1981, when the U.S. hostages lifted off from Tehran just as Ronald Reagan was taking office. The '80s, as befits their high-flying adrenaline, may have dissipated a few years early, sputtering to an end during the stock market's terrifying final hour of free fall on Monday....

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