Thats right! The financial meltdown of the USA was not caused by left-wing liberals or tree huggers or environmentalists! It was entirely caused and instigated by the Bush Regime and their corrupt pals who constitute what is known as Republican-Right Wing-Conservatism!

Its a cautionary tale - but knowing how "Brain-Washed" average Americans are with the Right Wing's "Flag Waving Bull-Shit",its a tragic tale but one that that will elicit nothing - no new restrictions (let alone any new thinking) against the vile,corrupt US Govt or its co-conspirators who constitute Wall St. speculators (predators) and their heinous NAFTA schemes etc.

Fittingly,In this disastrous end,Americans are only getting what they richly deserve!!!

While Americans ARE getting what they richly deserve, it is NOT just the actions of Republitrash who have brought this apon US. It is the Democraps too.

Just dare to ask me for examples. BITCH!

The simple fact is - there were heavy regulations on capitalism from the 1930s to the 1980s, and we didn't enter a depression. In fact, we saw the rise of the so-called "middle class", when the wages of the working class rose relative to the profits of the wealthy.

This was undone, slowly, from the late 70s through today. Each successive year brought decreases in regulation. (McCain was a big champion of deregulation.)

Each year also brought increases in capitalist consolidation, where large companies got larger. The "baby Bells" all got bought out by SBC, which renamed itself to AT&T, the original monopoly that was broken up. Media companies have gotten larger, and fewer in number. Banks, which were restricted from selling a wide range of products to different markets, were allowed to cross over.

(Incidentally, this big bailout doesn't undo this trend toward consolidation. Both the main plan and the Republican counter-plan encourage continued consolidation.)

Taxes have declined for the wealthy, while the middle class and poor have seen declines in entitlements. This is another kind of capitalist consolidation. The rich have gotten richer, and the poor have stayed poor.

One specific tax the capitalists have fought against is the capital gains tax. (The tax was applied when a house, stocks, or any asset was sold, and there was a profit because the price rose.) They cut the tax in half. This tax functioned as a kind of damper on people who wanted to buy and trade things -- it was a kind of transaction cost. By getting rid of the transaction cost, they accelerated the ease by which capitalists could move money in and out of different investments.

This helped contribute to the economic boom, but it also contributes to the stock bubble.

The trend of the past fifteen years or so has been very rapid deregulation, especially during the Bush administration. Capitalism has been unfettered, and it is out of control.

The scale of this collapse is just the side effect of the scale of capitalist consolidation. There's nothing "unusual" about the situation -- it's normal capitalism. There's a boom-bust cycle, and in any unregulated situation the cycle is extreme. We're experiencing the downside of deregulation.