I answered your post as such because you stated you believed that the free market system was the best and that is what built our country in such a short period of time. There were many contributing factors including monopolies that would be considered illegal today and large numbers of unskilled immigrant laborers that were as "unwelcome" then as they are now.

I am definitely not an economist either. I believe in a lot of economic models but I have a problem with the fact that most economists rely on the need for greater consumption in order to spur economic growth. Our true problem in America is how much we consume, yet that is what our entire economy is based upon. Now that wages are stagnant and inflation is increasing, we are consuming less. This has dire consequences on our economy. I propose the best solution for our country, not the best global solution, would be to consume more from home and less from abroad. I do not have enough expertise to provide advice for the world. Heh.

The problem with the housing market was that the values kept going up which were then used as a demonstration as to why people should take riskier loans. Nice Ponzi scheme. And as we all know, Ponzi schemes collapse eventually.

I understand frustrations with the government. I can only hope that people realize this isn't simply about blaming that certain person or that particular party, but that just about all of those who belong to the Big 2 parties have had their hands in the cookie jars for far too long. I am amused at the contest between the 2 presidential candidates now to see who can claim the most credit for pointing out there was a problem before hand, while neither of them did anything to prevent the problem they supposedly forsaw.