What factors(in your opinion) directly contributed to the fall of the economy?

1. Greed
2. Deregulation
3. the Bush Administration
4. Stupidity

The United States of America

the final nail was the reversal of the Glass-Stegal act(thank Graham for that). The constant erosion of regulation along with allowing the foxes to guard the hen house(the SEC). The concept that the markets would be self-regulating ala Ayn Rand, the fallacy of which Greenspan finally mea culpaed to. The opportunity to bind everything together by bundling all the worthless debt into financial instruments that the top few were actually able to reap fortunes from, talk about ponzi schemes!
so pretty much what dalepetrie said only wordier.
so now we are trillions poorer, not only in lost value of retirement plans et al, but also the loot we tossed down the black hole of financial institutions. Paulson lied lied lied, what transparency? now we are being told we will never know where the money has/is going. WTHeck, we own the banks now, how is it that they think they can tell us we don’t have the right to demand an accounting? guess that’s where the stupidity comes in…