Our Economy: How did we get here? (Breaking down the question)

Sitting at my unemployment headquarters (Opening Bell @ Southside - in case some need reminding), I am constantly reminded of the state of our economy. On many an occasion, friends and family alike have wanted to know, "what's going on with our economy?"

A fair question, no doubt. Most of the time, the people that ask this question do so with an air of pure unadulterated frustration - seeing the values of their respective portfolios dropping like a rock. Meanwhile, the same money-making practitioners that had steered them to their lackluster portfolios now are the beneficiaries of a $700B 'bailout'.

So - what gives?

The voices behind the questions are similar to a crowd singing along at a concert. Most of the lyrics come out as garbled noise, but the chorus always rings clear. In this case our chorus is "So - what gives?"

Like the song, it is necessary to understand the lyrics in order to understand the true meaning of the chorus.

Akin to the crowd, it is necessary to break down the competing voices if there is any hope to explain the song.

So, in this series, I plan on breaking down the question into the following consumable sub-questions:

1. How did our economy get to the credit-crunch we find ourselves in? (This is intended to be a strict structural examination of the US liquidity issues which led to the $700B bailout)
2. What proceeded the crunch that allowed us to get here in the first place? (I will examine both sides of what has largely become a political argument)
3. What can we expect from our economy at this point?

As always, I have high hopes that readers will benefit from my personal itch.