'Market bulls and bears are having trouble as 'unlimited' Fed support short circuits models' - CNBC

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. One huge problem with the Crash in 1929

is that an awful lot of stock had been bought on margin. People put down 10% of the stock price, and financed the other 90%, only the expectation was that the price would go up, they'd sell, and never have to pay off the loan. That isn't happening these days. I believe even those who do buy on margin need to front up 50% of the stock price, so there's not very much margin buying and the exposure to price drops simply isn't that great.

A lot of people were completely wiped out financially by the Crash and the Great Depression.

Also, throughout the '20s there was already essentially a Depression for farmers. They'd overplanted crops because during the Great War they could sell everything at good prices. The war ended, prices dropped, so they planted even more. That's also a huge contribution to the Dust Bowl. By planting even marginal land, by stripping the land of everything, once the rains stopped, it was a big mess.

The causes of the Crash and the Great Depression are many and complicated.

As long as I've been here people like to gleefully predict another Crash. They gloat over the possibility that stocks will completely crater, as if they don't have a 401k themselves. I just don't get it.