The why of the Economic meltdown is pretty easy to understand

The financial quacks in their genius found a way to so far exceed "real production, real increases in value" to the point that they successfully decoupled "supply and demand."
There is NO greater example of this than the oil market. Where for a couple of years, the price kept rising and rising, without an eminent sign of a shortage.
The sole driving force was the gambling urge of the "investors" all betting the "future" price would go up, and their confidence all boosted by their manipulation of the "overnight" trades that "proved" that prices were going up, even though there were ample supplies. Tight does NOT equal shortage, and was there ever a time when the amount of crude pumped fell short of the demand. I don't think so.
Decoupling "supply and demand" meant they could basically go insane gambling fantasy notions of the future, and manipulate those who believed these market thieves at their word that their "efforts were the best way to channel capital into the most productive way." What a total line of bullshit. What's amazing is how many willingly believed this even though one of the key "most productive ways" was dramatic increases in executive pay for failing!
Of course, once they did breach this cardinal rule of economics, that "price must reflect on a basic level the REAL demand vs. a REAL supply" it was not going to be long before like Icarus they were going to come falling down and crash.
The question is what should be done.
In a general sense, so much of the current "financial gambling circuit" is rotted to the core, and that means it cannot be saved, thus the inevitable deep recession (but don't call it a depression.)
Before things can get better, the rot in the form of NO regulation, the rot in the form of rules designed to reward extreme short sightedness must be eviscerated.
In the place of those laws which legalized what past generations would call criminal should be a new system of regulation that recognizes one principal over all PROFIT FOR THE SAKE OF PROFIT IS GREED, and GREED IS NEVER GOOD.
Profit should be "defined" as the result of making something worthwhile, useful in some way (even as entertainment) that fills a want, desire need in the world.
Financial tools that exist solely to make money from money based on "guesses" on a future price without ever creating anything along the line should be eliminated (that does NOT mean traditional financial tools like Interest - Interest is a product of performing a "service" not gambling).
Honestly the German way is the best way, and should serve as the core of the rebuilding, but there are the Spanish who thanks to their smart decisions are avoiding the crisis. Their decisions should be used to learn and expanded on worldwide as well. An amalgam of the German/Spanish/Traditional Anglo investment rules is what's needed to ensure that the West doesn't end up at the bottom of the world economic spheres once the Chinese rise to the top.
No effort should be made to save the "chief gamblers" who did their best to hide their "pyramid schemes, shell games" under the guise of creative financial investment tools.
On an individual basis, no matter how long it takes, these thieves must be punished, brought down. Society must learn and teach itself that such hubris, selfishness and greed is evil.
It's ironic that we in the USA have had a President obsessed with simple black and white evil who was utterly blind to how evil his "kleptocratically run, gambling driven financial system" was.
Humans live too short lives to expect this lesson to be remembered beyond a generation or two.
It must be instilled in our educational texts, not as a historical footnote, but the punishment of these financial criminals must be put on par with Hitler. For in their own way they have probably caused as many if not more deaths, violence and destruction to the common man as he did, or any megalomaniac warmonger has (Bush I know).
Then on top of it, basic economic education must become mandatory in all AMERICAN schools. I imagine Europeans have always had some sort of basic instruction, but Americans have absolutely NONE. This ignorance is what made so many of my fellow Americans all to eager to believe the garbage being told them as gospel, financial truth.