I feel that way as well, and I assumed I was ignorant or stupid because I couldn't make sense of it... then October hit and it became obvious that a large numbe

I feel that way as well, and I assumed I was ignorant or stupid because I couldn't make sense of it... then October hit and it became obvious that a large number of companies that made their fortunes on this system also did not or could not understand the whole thing either. It was kind of reassuring in a "you're smarter than you let yourself think, but not smart enough that your house isn't underwater" way. The last time I felt this way was in the mid-late 90s sitting on the porch with my dad in rural Nebraska. We couldn't figure out why so many tech companies were darlings of the stock market. And sure enough, while there was some (read: substantial) lasting value in the internet business, there were a lot of really stupid dot coms that didn't bring anything to the table. I believe that there's a large amount of capital seeking returns right now. That is to say, I think at this stage of the world's economic evolution many organizations have obligations to invest large amounts of money, and that there's some ratio of money to real work that is off kilter possibly. For this reason I think tech and the financial bubbles represent a class of problem that we're going to see repeat itself (irregularly) going forward. It would sure be nice to be able to capitalize on it, somehow. :)