how much did the stock market crash during the great recession 
on oct 9 2007 the dow jones industrial average closed at its pre recession high of 14 164 53 by march 5 2009 the index had fallen more than 50 to 6 594 44 on sept 29 2008 the dow fell nearly 778 points in one day it was the largest point drop in history until the market crashed in march 2020 at the start of the covid 19 pandemic the bottom linethe great recession lasted from roughly 2007 to 2009 in the u s although the contagion spread around the world affecting some economies longer the root cause was excessive mortgage lending to borrowers who normally would not qualify for a home loan which greatly increased risk to the lender lenders were willing to take this risk as they could simply package the loans into an instrument they sold passing the risk on to investors low interest rates and poor regulatory oversight following the repeal of the glass steagall act compounded the problem as credit was cheap and lending institutions had been freed from regulations that would have hampered their ability to mix commercial and investment banking which glass steagall had separated as the economy imploded and financial institutions failed the u s government launched a massive bailout program which included assistance for consumers and the many unemployed people via the 787 billion american recovery and reinvestment act arra most credit the bailouts and the arra with providing much needed relief to the public and with saving the financial industry along with other industries from total failure however some assert the money used to bail out insolvent institutions could have been directed to more productive enterprises rather than using it to save failed ones 