The Great Economic Train Wreck: When America Went Off the Rails

We tend to think of dominos as standing the tiles on end and then tipping the first one over, toppling into the second, which falls into the third until finally all the dominoes have fallen. In 2008 the first of many financial dominos began falling. Many were worried and looked to Washington for leadership. Instead, we saw only politics-as-usual.

But as 2009 and 2010 unfolded, it became too benign to suggest our stricken economy was simply toppled dominos. It was more accurate to describe ou...