The United States administration that is currently in power was and still is the catalyst for the economic collapse that began in the summer of 2008. Summer of 2008?! But the Democrats weren't in power?! They weren't, but the charts don't lie. The Dow for example was at 13,000 and took a 7,000 point nose-dive when it became more likely that the Democrats would take office and the current President would be elected.
Here is the theory: Promises of higher taxes and socialistic policies spooked corporate America and investors causing them to pull their monies out of their own businesses and investments. The smart people pulled their monies out of the markets first seeing the writing on the wall, whereas the average American was left holding losses in excess of 50% on their investments and as a result the dollar soared; that is where the monies went from the collapsing markets. A lot of financial firms failed because they were over-leveraged and with their investments failing they couldn't cover their losses. This was not just a collapsing housing market that created this calamity but a collapsing economy because of the current policies of the President which discourages business and investment; thus federal, state and local governments are running huge budget deficits due to reduced tax inflows.