This economic collapse is the result of social engineering. The Community Reinvestment Act was set up to give cheap housing to the Democrats favored group, the black community. The deal was so good that the white community which has a lot more money got in the act and was willing and able to take a great deal more risk. Free mortgages for everybody. Once the banks figured out how to get them off their books it was a free-for-all. The law of unintended consequences, social engineering run amok. No different than the Great Society. The Bush administration warned time and time again about the coming problem (see article at Investors Business Daily). But there was no chance to stop this because too many people were making too much money. The financial system has grown so large particularly with the tremendous increase in world trade that no one is able to design a big enough aircraft carrier.