Fireworks erupt behind the ball drop to mark the New Year in Times Square. AP/MARK LENNIHAN The stock market may be in danger of repeating some very bad history.

The current market environment is looking a whole lot like the 1998-1999 stock market bubble, and the crash of 2000 may not be far behind, said Michael Hartnett of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"It could simply be 1998/99 all over again. After all, a 'speculative blow-off' in asset prices is one logical conclusion to a world dominated by central bank liquidity, technological disruption & wealth inequality," he wrote in a note Sunday.

Hartnett, BAML's chief investment strategist, thinks the emerging-market problems and subsequent global response reflect a similar set of circumstances in the late 1990s.

Here's the chain of events via Hartnett (emphasis added):

Back then, as could be the case today, a bull market & a US-led economic recovery was rudely interrupted by a crisis in Emerging Markets. The crisis threatened to hurt Main Street via Wall Street (the Nasdaq fell 33% between Jul-Oct 1998, when [Long-Term Capital Management] went under). Policy makers panicked and monetary policy was eased (with hindsight unnecessarily). Fresh liquidity combined with apocalyptic investor sentiment very quickly morphed into a violent but narrow equity bull market/bubble in 1998/99, one which ultimately took valuations & interest rates sharply higher to levels that eventually caused a "pop".

Let's recreate that with today's news.