At first sight of an economic or financial collapse, financial investors and traders, or simpy those with money scurry out their funds from the stock market and into investments considered as safe havens such as bonds, swiss francs, or gold, among others. The rush into these safe havens increases the price of bonds, the appreciaton of the swiss francs, and the increase in the value of gold. This, in turn, precipitates the stock market crash. At the outset, the first movers will find themselves justified in making the early exit as panic and gloom trumpeted by mass media induce more of the the resilient stock investors to pull out their funds from the stock market and join the fray into safe havens. As the exodus continues, these safe havens become too overcrowded that late comers then realize that the house of cards that everybody has gone into soon come crashing down. Panic and gloom has created a sucker every minute. Safe havens has become a legalized Ponzi scheme where the last movers are always left holding the bag.
