From the mouth of a wolf in sheep's clothing
There's much to be said about the current financial crisis. At the heart of this, as every Austrian knows, is the fault the US government holds for creating the current situation through its central bank and its inflationary policy. This fundamental economic truth cannot be stated enough. Ignorance of it shows in so-called debates about the crisis in popular media, sans Ron Paul's occassional publicity as the sheepherders perhaps finally realize they were really part of the herd that bleated the black sheep. Yet current ignorance exists because, obviously, many were never educated. They were lied to; or, to use the popular apology: they were the best they could be with what information was present at the time. That lie, or missing education, is that the Great Depression was caused by laissez-faire capitalism, which we, the soundedly educated, know to be a lie as bald as John McCain's face when asked an economic question by Ron Paul (the same face Gen. Petraeus wears).
The cause behind the Great Depression, so well-put by Murray Rothbard in his book, America's Great Depression, was the government. This cannot be stated enough considering current situations. The fact that this truth is so unknown can be seen in how popular media address the current financial crisis and its so-called bailout (read: extension). This crisis and its intervention are labeled as "the greatest since the Great Depression." Although a great starting point for addressing the horrible New Deal, this phrase is complete misdirection. The "greatest" economic intervention in the US economy is what preceded and precipitated the Great Depression; planted the seed, bore a tree, and flowered with Government Apples for a "fruitful economic future." It was the US central bank and its inflationary policy during the 1920s that was the "greatest economic intervention" in US history. It was what brought about the Great Depression, and ignorance of the fact led many to bleat along blindly with the sheepherders who introduced the New Deal and those who look to unleash the wolf that is Henry Paulson's $700 billion bailout—the bailout that professes it will shore up bad US loans when it will only loan the crisis more time until it reaches a level never before seen, even "since the Great Depression."