The above article is a good read, but I take issue with naming it the “driver of the current economic problems”. Rather, the article decribes some of the symptoms of the problem – a problem which was, and continues to be, the Federal Reserve.

No matter how one slices it, the fact is, the Federal Reserve had the constitutional authority to mandate tighter lending guidelines on all lenders. Greenspan could have stopped the ridiculous practices by lenders which gave loans to people with no money down, bad credit scores, etc…But he didn’t because the banks which he represents were bringing in record profits during the boom. When Bernanke took over, he was slow to act as well. It wasn’t until it was painfully obvious that a severe contraction in the housing market was occurring did Bernanke finally mandate new lending guidelines, but by then it was too late to stop the deflationary contraction. Once Bernanke realized the true extent of the problem on Wall St. he jumped in and paved the way for bailouts for the big banks.