The economic aftermath of the Crash of 1929 - as has been the aftermath of most stock market crashes - was devastating.

List and describe two precursors (economic events or trends, general investment approaches) that have been known to lead to market crashes.

Under the above scenario - and what you have learned about investing in this course and what we have discussed in class -- when confronted with the various investment alternatives of which asset classes to allocate your savings to, what asset class (gold, cash, common stocks etc.) would you select as your principal investment holding and why?