Hundreds of regional banks and thrifts went under in 1991/92/93 and the market didn't crash (although it went into a bear market when using the Value Line Arithmetic Index which represents the average stock). The difference is much of the pain was concentrated on smaller banks back then, today big banks and even brokerage companies hold billions in toxic debt and fantasy assets.Quote from achilles28:Looks like a ton of small American Banks still hold CDO's. ARM resets will put them under. The first few regional banks will Crash the market. Panicked investors will just run for the exit. Oh man.