Much of this goes back to something a friend once said to me; he said:
"Maserati, it doesn't matter if you OWN or OWE a million dollars; you're still a millionaire, because you're in CONTROL of a million dollars."
This was back in 1988.
My response to him then was:
"Maybe, but I would rather be COLLECTING the interest on a million dollars than PAYING it."
Pretty glib response, but I will never forget the convo.
I know intimately how some of these guys think. It was scary in .com, it was scary in subprime, and it is scary today. Every now and then they gain the upper hand, because there is periodically a new crop of the incredulous who buy it . The incredulous buy in, get burned, and the whole cycle starts over again.
This time it is all the hapless 401k'ers and IRA'ers who will get burned, although I understand that actually not too many individuals in the USA actually have such market-based accounts. But, IMO there will be a crisis and reset, and once again I will have been a bit early. That belies my financially conservative nature, I guess.