This housing crisis happens about every twenty years, so why are we making the same stupid mistakes? Didn't we go through this same thing in the 80's? Have we not learned anything?

“I’m more worried than I have ever been about the future of the U.S. economy,” said Allen Sinai, co-founder of the consulting firm Decision Economics and a longtime participant in the symposium. “The challenge is unique: poor and diminishing growth, a sticky unemployment rate, sky-high deficits and a sovereign debt that makes us one of the most fiscally irresponsible countries in the world.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/business/economy/29fed.html?_r=1&ref=business