Before 1919, most Americans avoided debt. “It was a moral sin to use credit to buy anything,” says Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of “Too Big to Fail” and “1929” and co-creator of the show “Billions.” Then everything changed. General Motors began lending money so people could buy cars, and bankers began lending money so people could buy stocks. At the time, investors only had to put down 10% of the stock price, borrowing the rest from their brokers. “In good times, when the stock is going up, it's like free money. In bad times, you're on the hook, and you're on the hook in a very bad way,” explains Sorkin. Since then, laws, regulations, and watchdog agencies have been put in place to protect investors — especially the less affluent — from being exploited, but some of those guardrails have been tumbling down. #finance #wallstreet #1929 #stocks #debt