It seems to me that what we see are the results of greed and bad business practices. Banks and the people who took loans without thinking about how they could pay for it (in some cases the banks doing shady deals) toppled the housing market which trickled down to other sectors. I am still amused that while the housing problem is constantly talked about no one seems to see that the same thing might occur when all this credit card debt comes home to roost. Credit cards are not a magic money machine, the bill needs to be paid at some time. Banks just keep handing them out and people just keep spending on them and owing.