>
Insights>
Market Activity>
From 1929 to Dotcom to Today: Why Market Crashes Are Never Far Away. By Lane Clark of TPP.
Market Activity
Every generation of investors convinces itself this time is different.
September 22, 2025
Related Links
Every investor wants to believe the good times will last forever. In the 1920s, it was radios, automobiles, and the electrification of America. In the late 1990s, it was the internet and dotcom dreams. Today, it’s artificial intelligence, crypto, and the Magnificent Seven megacaps.
Each era feels new. Each promises revolutionary change. Each insists this time is different. And yet, each ends the same way: with euphoria turning to fear, and markets unravelling faster than anyone thought possible.
Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book 1929 brings to life the mania that drove Wall Street before the Great Depression. It's well worth a read. The Dow had almost doubled in a year. Radio Corporation of America (RCA) stock soared fifty-fold. Investors dismissed warnings and piled into debt to chase easy money.
When the crash came, it was not just a single moment. By the end of 1930, the market had lost a third. By 1932, it had collapsed 80%. It was, as Sorkin put it, “a relentless unravelling.” Bank failures followed, alongside mass unemployment and the Depression.
The lesson? Technology, leverage, and optimism are a potent but dangerous cocktail.
Fast-forward seventy years. The US economy was strong, unemployment low, and technology was again rewriting the rules. Investors fell in love with internet stocks.
But the seeds of disaster were sown by monetary policy. In 1998, the Federal Reserve cut rates to cushion markets during the Long-Term Capital Management crisis. Instead, it supercharged speculation. Money poured into dotcom stocks. The Nasdaq doubled in less than 18 months.
Alan Greenspan was hailed as “the maestro” for avoiding calamity. But in reality, he had poured fuel on the fire. By March 2000, the bubble imploded. Companies like Nortel, Enron, and Pets.com were wiped out. Nokia lost 92% of its value. Broadcom fell 86%. The fallout was brutal and long-lasting.
Look around the markets today and the parallels are impossible to ignore.
But beneath the surface, the same old forces are at play: debt, speculation, and a collective belief that the good times can last forever.
Mark Twain famously said history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Markets are proof. The details differ, RCA radios, dotcom domains, AI chips, but the rhythm is the same:
The real danger is not that crashes happen, it’s that investors convince themselves they can’t.
The point of revisiting 1929 or 2000 isn’t to scare investors into paralysis. It’s to understand that cycles are inevitable. Bull markets breed complacency. Crashes reset the system. The winners are not those who deny this. but those who prepare for it.
At TPP, that’s exactly how we approach the markets. We don’t make excuses when conditions change. We build strategies that adapt to volatility, manage risk, and seize opportunities on both the upside and the downside.
Because whether markets are booming or crashing, there are always opportunities, for those positioned to take them.
The question is: when the music stops, will your wealth manager still be dancing, or will they be ready to act?
At TPP, we already know our answer.
We built TPP because the old world of wealth management is broken. Stale, overpriced, outdated, and still failing investors when it matters most.
The truth is simple: in a normal market climate, 80% of wealth managers underperform a basic index tracker. And in turbulent times, whether it’s 1929, the credit crunch, or the next shock — their lack of foresight is staggering.
That’s not good enough.
When markets retrace, it creates opportunity. When they dump, it can be the moment to build wealth for the long term. But only if you have a strategy designed to seize it.
That’s the difference with TPP. We don’t panic. We don’t liquidate. We adapt, we act, and we take advantage.
TPP was built on a simple truth: the wealth management industry isn’t fit for purpose.
High fees, outdated thinking, and weak performance have been tolerated for too long.
History proves that when markets turn, most investors are left exposed. Wealth managers make excuses. Investors take the hit.
If you're an investor, contact our team for an absolutely FREE consultation call. If you're a client of ours, know that we're watching these frothy markets very closely.
“TPP might just be about to revolutionise investment for the retail market.”
- London Stock Exchange 2020
