资金杠杆(英语：Leverage 或 Gearing)，例如操作具有10倍契约保证金或权利金价值的期货或选择权商品契约。这都是当时的企业过度举债投资于高风险的事业或活动，遇到投资获利不如预期时，杠杆作用的乘数效果，加速企业的亏损以及资金的缺口，到影响整体的经济环境。而负债比就是资金杠杆，负债比越高，杠杆效果就越大。然而资金杠杆的乘数效果是双向的，当公司运用借贷的资金获利等于或高于预期时，对股东的报酬将是加成；相反的，当获利低于预期，甚至发生亏损时，就有如屋漏偏逢连夜雨，严重者就是营运中断，走上清算或破产一途，使得股东投资化成泡沫。

In finance, leverage (sometimes referred to as gearing in the United Kingdom and Australia) is any technique to multiply gains and losses. Most often it involves buying more of an asset by using borrowed funds, with the belief that the income from the asset or asset price appreciation will be more than the cost of borrowing. Almost always this involves the risk that borrowing costs will be larger than the income from the asset, or that the value of the asset will fall, leading to incurred losses.