It is not just Collaterized Debt Obligations, Mortgage Backed Securities,
and several other things on home mortgages but less reported is the same
things were going on in Commercial loans. As the easy money tapered off a
significant amount of consumer spending shifted to credit cards. Now that
credit card delinquencies are soaring consumer spending is falling.
Politicians helped this along in many ways. McCain's economic advisor Phil
Gramm was behind removing the Glass-Segal restrictions on banks and they
jumped into the easy money fray as far as they could. The bushie tax cuts
for the wealthy and businesses made it much more individually profitable to
hang on to the money rather than pay wages while at the same time
productivity gains made each worker more profitable.
Where are we now? Peak oil is happening. It is a minor component to the
current crisis but it is there and is making recovery more difficult.