JB stock levels, page-70

"The 08 crash was triggered by a small percentage of sub prime mortgages defaulting on a housing bubble that were twisted and packaged to be sold many times over as derivatives that really only seriously affected a handful of banks."
I think you are heavily understating the events of 2008.

Everything else you are talking about has been widely discussed ever since 2009. The "kicking the can down the road" and increasing debt compounding problems. Gold being the only investment worth considering. Gold price going up to $5,000 plus. I've been reading about the same thing for over ten years and yet the US markets continued to rally as earnings grew and returns from stocks beat returns from cash. The biggest driver of this market decline was fear of rising rates and the effect on relative valuations of stocks versus cash. Trade issues with China complicated matters. Our market never rallied as much and didn't even reach pre-2009 levels. Hence I doubt our market needs to correct as much but who knows. What I do know is that markets can surprise both to the downside and to the upside far beyond expectations. The Fed is starting to signal they may be done with rate rises and some big names are now predicting rates to be dropped if markets continue to fall. That may drive a strong multi month rally. I'm not expecting new highs or a continuation of the bull market but US markets have corrected quite heavily and I think that diminishes the risk of a crash. Perhaps we see a continued orderly decline instead or perhaps a multi year trading range sideways. That would help MWR to do its own thing.
On the other hand, a lot of the deeper part of this sell off may be due to fear and redemptions from managed funds forcing those funds to sell despite what they may think of the fundamentals.
A lot of the Wall street banks, including the ones that warned of a market top last year, are now calling for higher markets this year with many thinking the worst is already priced in and therefore markets are more likely to rise this year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/26/pre...ill-rally-in-2019.html?recirc=taboolainternal

I wouldn't be buying on leverage as there are significant risks but I also wouldn't even consider shorting the market here as there is certainly significant risk to the upside as well.