CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) -- There are eerie parallels between the stock market's recent behavior and how it behaved right before the 1929 crash.

That, at least, is the conclusion reached by a frightening chart that has been making the rounds on Wall Street. The chart superimposes the market's recent performance on top of a plot of its gyrations in 1928 and 1929.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty