All last year a prominent ad ran in Yahoo Finance and elsewhere predicting an "80 Percent Collapse in Stocks." A lot of Cassandras are wiping the egg off their faces, having predicted another stock market crash, economic depression or a dollar collapse.

None of those prognosticators are coming forward with a mea culpa. No doubt fear sells more than greed.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the stock market crash on Black Monday, October 19, 1987, the worst crash in Wall Street history — the Dow fell over 500 points, or 22.6%, equivalent to 5,000-point drop today. It may be a dim memory for most of you, but for me it was as vivid as yesterday. It happened to be my 40th birthday. (In honor of my birthday this year, the Huffington Post published an interview with some of my economic insights and a timeline of my accomplishments. You can read the interview here.) However, few of my friends on Wall Street were smiling at the party my wife put together that day. One broker friend had a $5 million margin call, and wasn't sure if his customer was going to make it. (He eventually did.)