"Instead, the picture is one of a highly rare confluence of events, some linked, some unrelated, that exposed weaknesses in the stock market large and small." Please can we stop calling these "highly rare"? When market crises happen every few years - they aren't rare.

Here is a list off the top of my head:

- Nixon Wage and Price Controls of 1971 (coupled to floating the dollar see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_freeze)

- Oil Crisis of 1973 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis)

- Third World Default (hit major US banking hard in the mid 70's. I remember Walter Wriston then head of Citibank [then First National City Bank], lobbying a great deal in the press on this subject at the time, see: ).

- The Sterling Crisis of 1976 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#The_1976_sterlin...)

- Stagflation Crisis last 70's(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation)

- Farm Debt Crisis of late 70's (tied to Carter Grain Embargo in 1980: http://www.socialistaction.org/news/199910/farmcrisis.html)

- Reagan/Volker Recession of 1981-1982 (http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/03/volcker_...)

- Latin American Debt Crisis of 1982: (triggered by too much lending by major 1st-world banks to 3rd-world nations see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_debt_crisis)

- Japanese Asset Price Bubble of 1986-1991 (mostly property producing the lost generation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_asset_price_bubble)

- Black Monday in 1987 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987))

- US Savings and Loan Crisis of late 80's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_Loan_Crisis)

- Black Wednesday (Sterling leaving the ERM with Soro's help in 1992, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Following_the_Eu...)

- Swedish Banking Crisis and Run on Swedish Currency of 1992(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Sweden#Crisis_of_the...)

- Mexican Peso Collapse of 1994 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_economic_crisis_in_Mexico)

- Euro collapse (late 90's)

- Asian Financial Crisis of 1997(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asian_Financial_Crisis)

- Russian Financial Crisis of 1998 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Russian_financial_crisis)

- LTCM in 1998 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management)

- Peregrine Fund Collapse in 1998 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Investments_Holdings))

- Argentine Economic Crisis of 1999-2002(there are so many Wikipedia finds it necessary to put a date on this one see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_economic_crisis_(1999...)

- Dot Com Crash starting in 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_com_crash)

- South Korean Crash of mid-2000's (reading the Buffett bio _Snowball_ he enjoys learning about and finding good buys in the Korean market, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowball I cannot find a more specific reference to the South Korean Crash at this time)

- Argentina devaluation of 2002 (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/arg-j08.shtml)

- US Real Estate Collapse of 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_housing_bubble)

- Flash-Crash in 2010 (tied to potential Greek Debt Default and possibly some financial hacking: see: http://theweek.com/article/index/202769/The_Dow_Jones_flash_... and http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870487970457523...)

Order is likely off and I am missing a few. I am finding a lot more but welcome your suggestions and reorderings (email me, see profile, of you don't want to post).

This Flash-Crash sounds just like a 0 day exploit to me. The solutions and vulerability just like trying to keep an OS stable while running untrusted code. As long as it is more profitable to destabilize our economic "OS" rather than support it we'll see even more such snatch-and-grabs.

One solution: put all profits in interest-earning escrow for a week or so. That will slow down the rate of an attack allowing it to be identified and for an exploit to be closed.

P.S. Black Tuesday and Black Thursday commonly refer to events leading to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929). And Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year i the U.S. falling after Thanksgiving Day on Thursday and the Weekend - so another important financial day.