The credit mess building was clear and present danger for the past several years. Any advisors or experts who did not see and prepare for its coming should be avoided now.

Most financial experts and media are paid to sell people products, not see risks. That is the bias which makes most financial commentators and "advisors" utterly useless to us. My Irish father has an appropriate saying for this, "you're a nice fella', but you're no use".

The past 10 years have been one of the most high risk, high leverage periods in human history. Mindless, reckless speculation was widely touted as intelligent investing. The web of participants complicit in this demise, were virtually all inclusive: banks, investment firms, mortgage brokerages, real estate brokers, marketing firms, hedge funds, media and governments.

Human behaviour fulfilled its epic precedent of herd mentality and reckless deployment of easy credit.

In order to now repair the damage done and avoid making these same mistakes again, at least in our own lives, we need to study the evolution of the present mess and recognize the thinking or lack of thought that brought us here.

This documentary done by ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Company) investigation show "Four Corners: Mortgage Meltdown" is an excellent piece. It aired in Australia more than a year ago and a few months later on CBC's the Passionate Eye in Canada. It has interviews with Robert Schiller and Satyajit Das, warning viewers over a year ago that the world economy was going to have a meltdown...   more »