Everyone except banks hurt in 2008. Banks then went in buying everything cheap. The people could not buy at all, since everyone was robbed. But banks were bailed out, so they had the money to buy cheap stocks around the world after the crisis they themselves created.
Is it not obvious? The crashes and the pumps are architected by banks. The people who lost homes got hurt, but banks didn't. Banks made trillions of $ from the 2008 crisis.
In 2009, I bought a house from a bank for $50k less than the balance they foreclosed on, and I expect they had no recourse against the borrower. In aggregate, there were a lot of bank losses. Banks didn't expect the downturn either, or they wouldn't have made so many loans with essentially no standards. (Admittedly, they also weren't expecting to keep loans on their own books for very long)
That's a big if, though, depending on your (or "you" in aggregate) market power. And if you've got less than $1K in savings, you probably don't have a lot.
There's too much money at play for there to not be a conspiracy - of some sort. I think it's pretty hard to argue that our economy is not highly skewed towards protecting the wealth of the very rich.
I understand that perspective and I don't disagree. That certainly is the case; Many are there because they understand the financial system better than anyone else. I don't mean to suggest that there is a grand organized conspiracy. That said, I do believe there is a strong network of bankers that promote their self interest.
