[trunker]

the problem with trying to pin down what triggers economic events is that one step back will lead you to another step back and another and another until you get to your grandfathers time.

for example, you can pin this on the mortgage problem, but then what made mortgages so affordable? the low interest rates,... but what made them so low? the crap economy in the early 2000's, why was it crap? 9-11,.. but wait it was crappy before 9-11,... well yes but it made it worse,.... ok well why was it bad before 9-11? the economy was recovering from the dot com crash,..... and on and on ad nauseum......

you can learn from past periods of economic uncertainty, and alot of people compared this to the 1930's, but people only look back for help after something crap happens,.... hey rarely look back to see if something good happening might be a precursor to something bad.

so yea we've learned from this,... for now. you and i will remember this for a long time to come,.... but at some point in the near future we will forget, and it will most likely be when a "reliable source" has a hot stock tip for us, and we'll all say "this time its different" :P

its just human nature and cant be pinned down to an "ism" or a broad concept like greed.