How Did This Financial Crisis Happen?

In the past few days-since we’ve been all of a sudden told how dire America’s financial situation has become-I’ve wondered why we didn’t hear about it earlier. The Fed’s been warning about it for years. So has the SEC. So has the Bush Admin. In all those cases, I didn’t pay attention. Economics is boring, and when I hear doom/gloom I just droned out. Then, when everyone went into freakout mode, I wondered why it went from routine complaining to freakout mode? What? Wasn’t Congress watching to make sure agencies were doing their jobs? Where was Congressional oversight? Where was Sen Dod, Congressman Barney Frank? Where was all that oversight the Democrats said they would do when they took Congress?

What exactly IS this financial crisis?