It's the Economy

This article explains a lot about the economy and the current situation. I'd like to quote a lengthy bit for those who believe the economy under Bush was rosy until the recent crisis:

"During the intervening period, the "real" American economy was in doldrums: between 2000-2007, median household income dropped; the number of families living in poverty grew by almost 11 percent and the economy added jobs at the lowest rate in the post-World War II era. (I should add that those employment numbers look a lot worse when you take out the job growth in government and our uniquely inefficient health sector -- between 2001 and 2006, health care added 1.7 million (net) new jobs while the rest of the economy added zero.)"

The article also argues that the stock market has driven "short-termism" where the driving force behind CEO decisions is the company's quarter-to-quarter balance sheets, where the short term profits drive the company's stock price and thus CEO benefits. This leads to cutting back on anything that doesn't directly relate to short-term profits, including driving jobs overseas and gutting environmental protections.