Making Sense of the Financial Crisis

I just listened to an excellent episode of This American Life about the economy meltdown (called "Another Frightening Show about the Economy," if you're interested in listening to it). It was very interesting and informative, especially about topics that aren't being covered extensively in other media, including the commercial paper market, credit default swaps, and the "bailout" bill that was just passed. A lot of people are trying to assign blame and point fingers, and the truth is, pretty much everyone is to blame: Republicans, Democrats, bankers, borrowers, everyone. One interesting comment a financial professional made during the show was that the root of this whole problem is not really any one specific institution or commodity or law; it is our society's relationship with debt. We apparently are way too comfortable with it. Anyway, I thought maybe someone out there might be interested in this, because I was hearing a lot of conflicting opinions and explanations and this podcast really cleared things up for me.