ABSTRACT
Good words and bad words. We recognize them instantly, just as we recognize the good guy and the bad guy in the movies. Even at this late date almost all investors know that “margin” was one of the villains of the 1929 crash (and of other crashes). Speculators (bad) use margin and usually come to a bad end. The semanticist wonders how borrowing to buy stocks (i.e., using margin) is different from borrowing to buy a house.
