>>I am not saying that financial institutions are as pure as the driven snow. They're not. What I am saying is that I haven't seen too many outside the United States who really understand cause and effect when it comes to a free or even mixed economy, and what got us into this holy mess.

I heard a Fox "expert" commentator say last year that healthcare may be free in Europe but they can't afford to buy clothes. The other panelists chuckled. My advice: go take a look, then figure out who knows what.

As for the Great Depression: are you with the Austrian business cycle theorists or something else? In the end it's still rational to consider all such debacles to be a competition between human beings to see who can come up with the most incredibly stupid response to a given situation.