Capitalist economies have always been plagued by boom-bust cycles, alternating growth and collapse oscillations caused by the natural behavior of human investors en masse. It's been happening for as long as we have been keeping records. People do what seems to work, not understanding that the very act of doing that alters the conditions which made it work in the first place.

Most people understand this now, but con themselves into thinking they'll be able to "get out" before it all comes crashing down around their ears.

This was fine when only those who played the game were affected by the consequences. The problem is that today even those who have nothing to do with the game get dragged down along with it.

And now a few have developed the skills and techniques to isolate themselves from these consequences, and to profit from them, so it is often in their benefit to deliberately precipitate a crash.

They call it "economic freedom."