Dow Jones Industrial Average: Plot Summaries by Decade (1900–2025)

The DJIA’s 125-year rollercoaster: from horse-and-buggy booms to AI-fueled frenzy. Each decade’s «plot» captures the vibe—bull runs 🟢, bear maulings 🔴, key twists 📉💥, and net arc (avg annual return %). Data from historical closes; emojis for the soul-crushing highs and lows. Spoiler: It’s up ~1,000x overall, but the ride? Pure drama. 🚀😵‍💫

Decade	Plot Summary	Net Arc
1900s 🏭	Industrial dawn: Steady factories chug along amid trusts and tariffs. Minor dips from 1907 panic, but rails and steel build empire. Quiet opener to the American Century. 🛤️📈	🟢 7.2% avg return – Slow-build origin story.
1910s ⚔️	War interrupts progress: WWI booms munitions, then 1914 shutdown stalls everything. Post-armistice rally, but flu pandemic adds plot twist. Heroic recovery amid chaos. 💣🩹	🔴 -0.5% avg – Trenches and trenches of volatility.
1920s 🎉	Roaring Twenties jazz: Speculation explodes—radios, cars, stocks on margin. Bubble inflates to bursting… cue the cliffhanger. 🥂📈💥	🟢 12.1% avg – Party ends in ’29 crash (-89% drawdown incoming).
1930s 📉	Great Depression dirge: Crash cascades into breadlines, bank runs, Dust Bowl despair. New Deal flickers hope, but 1937 relapse. Darkest chapter, slow crawl back. 🥖😢	🔴 -2.3% avg – Survival horror; bottom at 41 pts in ’32.
1940s 🛡️	WWII war machine: Rationing and rationals—defense spending ignites rebound. Post-1945 boom as GIs return. From ashes to assembly lines. ⚙️✈️	🟢 6.8% avg – Victory lap after the abyss.
1950s 🚗	Suburban boomtown: Eisenhower highways, TVs, suburbs—consumer golden age. Mild ’57 dip, but endless upward suburbia. 🏡📺	🟢 14.7% avg – Postwar paradise, no clouds.
1960s 🌍	Go-go growth: Space race, Vietnam fog—tech and turmoil. ’62 Flash Crash (-6% day), but Kennedy cuts taxes fuel rally. Swinging sixties end high. 🪐🕺	🟢 7.4% avg – Moonshot momentum.
1970s 🛢️	Stagflation stag party: Oil shocks, Watergate, inflation devours gains. Double-digit bears, but ’73–74 (-45%) nadir births value hunters. Groovy? Nah, grindy. ⛽😤	🔴 -1.2% avg – Energy crisis eclipse.
1980s 🏦	Reaganomics rocket: Deregulation, Volcker tames inflation. ’87 Black Monday (-22% day) heart-stopper, but quick rebound. Wall Street wolves howl. 🐺💹	🟢 14.2% avg – Yuppies and yields.
1990s 🌐	Dot-com dazzle: Internet ignition—PC boom, Clinton surplus. ’90 Gulf dip minor; late ’90s mania peaks at 11,000. Tech utopia tease. 💻🚀	🟢 15.8% avg – Bubble prelude.
2000s 💥	Dot-bust to housing hustle: 2000–02 (-38%) tech tomb, 9/11 shock, then real estate rally. 2008 GFC finale (-54% total drawdown). Decade of double whammies. 🏠🔥	🔴 -0.9% avg – Twin towers of trouble.
2010s 📱	QE forever: Post-crisis crawl to cloud nine. Eurodebt wobbles, 2011 S&P downgrade, but Fed fuel and FAANG frenzy. 2018 flirt with bear. Smartphone saga. 📈🍎	🟢 10.3% avg – Central bank chronicles.
2020s 🦠🤖	Pandemic plot twist: COVID crash (-37% in a month), then V-shaped valor via vaccines and stimulus. 2022 inflation bear (-25%), AI hype rally. Ongoing: Rate roulette. 💉🚀	🟢 8.1% avg (thru ’25) – Zoom to boom, TBD finale.

Overall Arc (1900–2025): From ~66 pts to ~42,000 pts. 📈🌍 Survived two world wars, depressions, pandemics, and bubbles. Lesson? Emojis fade; compounding endures. What’s next: Mars markets? 🪐😂