I can assure you that you don&#x27;t have to be a member of the the 0.1% to profit in a downturn. If you can buy shares of stock and call options, you can short shares of stock and purchase puts.<p>Of course, you&#x27;ll never win much sympathy profiting from sanity. If you want sympathy, help &quot;grow the economy&quot; by leveraging yourself to the hilt and blaming evil bankers when your debt catches up to you. But please recognize that you&#x27;re not really growing the economy; you&#x27;re just mortgaging your future.