Success also planted the seeds of disaster by creating self-defeating expectations and behaviors. The huge profits made in these decades by investors conditioned many to believe in the underlying benevolence of financial markets. Although they might periodically go to excess, they would ultimately self-correct without too much collateral damage. The greater stability of the real economy—by contrast, there had been four recessions from the late 1960s to the early 1980s—provided an anchor. The Fed was also a backstop: under Alan Greenspan, it was lionized for averting deep downturns after the stock-market crash of 1987 and the burst “tech bubble” in 2000. Money managers, regulators, economists, and the general public all succumbed to these seductive beliefs.

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— Samuelson: Economy Doesn’t Go Bust Often Enough - Newsweek.com