The thing is, you CAN specify a leverage limit for the companies you invest your money in. Publicly traded companies are obligated by the SEC to release report

The thing is, you CAN specify a leverage limit for the companies you invest your money in. Publicly traded companies are obligated by the SEC to release reports detailing their financial situation, including a total inventory of assets and liabilities. Now, in practice, these are written in accountant speak, but they are readable, especially for a hacker used to deciphering obscure technical documents. The problem is very few people actually care about how leveraged their investments are. Indeed, imagine spending the time to decode the balance sheet of every company you owned stock in. If your portfolio was at all diversified, this could become a full time job. Furthermore, unleveraged investments are just plain not attractive during boom times. I will however, encourage you nonetheless to try to understand your investments. At least that way, you have only yourself to blame when the next crisis hits.