How Did We Get Ourselves In This Mess?

This is a question that I would like us to think about today. Not to torment ourselves about the current situation, but to learn from it. One of the problems I see constantly in the financial news is the incessant desire to know when are we going to end this recession. The media worried about what should we called this period; "The Great Recession", "The Big Bust"; who cares. The right question