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#1 The 2008 financial crisis was a result of many financial manipulations that ordinary people did not understand, and in which they played no part. It cost millions of Americans their livelihoods and their homes, and bankrupted many businesses.

#2 Americans' well-justified anger is affecting our political discourse, and it is important to understand the why and the what of the financial crisis and its aftermath in order to better function as a democracy.

#3 The U. S. financial system, which had grown too complex and too fragile for its own good, experienced a perfect storm in 2007–2009. When the once-copious flows of credit began to dry up, the economy nearly suffered cardiac arrest.

#4 The United States avoided a complete meltdown of its best-in-class financial system, and a second Great Depression. However, American macroeconomic performance since the fall of 2008 has been the worst in post–World War II American history.