Hyman Minsky had a concept he called Ponzi financing: "Minsky distinguished between three kinds of financing. The first, which he called “hedge financing”, is

Hyman Minsky had a concept he called Ponzi financing: "Minsky distinguished between three kinds of financing. The first, which he called “hedge financing”, is the safest: firms rely on their future cashflow to repay all their borrowings. For this to work, they need to have very limited borrowings and healthy profits. The second, speculative financing, is a bit riskier: firms rely on their cashflow to repay the interest on their borrowings but must roll over their debt to repay the principal. This should be manageable as long as the economy functions smoothly, but a downturn could cause distress. The third, Ponzi financing, is the most dangerous. Cashflow covers neither principal nor interest; firms are betting only that the underlying asset will appreciate by enough to cover their liabilities. If that fails to happen, they will be left exposed." -- https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2016/07/30/minskys-moment https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2016/07/30/minskys-m... The crash that occurs when people realize that an asset class is not going to keep going up is a "Minsky Moment". His conclusion was that stable growth led people to take on more debt - that stability itself was destabilizing and financial crises are inevitable.