There were a number of factors that contributed to the 2008 economic meltdown which gave birth to the near collapse of worldwide financial markets and one of the worst unemployment markets not seen since the Great Depression.

Factor #1     -     Roberta Achtenberg
Roberta Achtenberg, an obscure, little known civil rights attorney from San Francisco was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development by Bill Clinton in 1993. Up until the appointment, Achtenberg was best known for her controversial efforts in supporting public bathhouses as "institutions of tremendous symbolic significance to a sexual minority" (the gay community).  Achtenberg sought an end to traditional family arrangements by pushing same sex marriage and hit political pay-dirt on the issue in 1989 when she was appointedto head Mayor Art Agnos's Task Force on Family Policy. The task forceargued that the "recognition of domestic partnership is the only way totreat [gay] relationships with the equal dignity to which they areentitled." Its June 1990 report--featuring epigraphs from ThomasJefferson and Harvey Milk both--recommended extending health insurance,family and bereavement leave, and retirement benefits to the domesticpartners of city employees. Achtenberg's appointment to HUD gave her broad-sweeping powers which she used to force banks into providing mortgages to minorities with limited financial means. Through the powers of her office, Achtenberg berated, bullied and threatened conservative banks into approving mortgage applications for some two million unqualified borrowers. Banks were compelled to jump into line. Mortgage officers were forced to bend or break the conservative banking credit qualification rules that had been the hallmark of bank lending for nearly sixty years. After only two years on the job, Achtenberg was successful in securing more than two million mortgages for unqualified individuals. Many of these same unqualified homeowners would eventually default on their home mortgages and help send the financial markets spiraling out of control in the fall of 2008.

Factor #2     -     The Repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999
The Glass-Stegall Act came into existence just after the collapse of financial markets in 1929 which ushered in the Great Depression. The main component of the act was to forbid investment banks from merging with commercial banks. This act created a necessary barrier against high-risk investment companies from using the banks deposit reserves to invest in high-risk ventures/investment in search for higher returns. The act was repealed by the enactment of the Financial Services Modernization Act, better known as Gramm-Leach-Bliley, which Bill Clinton signed into legislation on November 12, 1999. Once this barrier fell commercial banks and investment banks were able to merge and soon became interconnected. One dependent on the other for survival. The dominoes began to line up in 1999, one after the other. In ten short years the first dominoes began to fall. This legislation would be directly responsible for bringing the entire world to the brink of financial ruin.

Factor #3     -     Dick Fuld (CEO of Lehman Brothers) and Joe Gregory (President of Lehman Brothers)
Many senior Lehman directors saw the dominoes lining up as far back as 2005. These directors informed Fuld and Gregory that the real estate market was about to burst and that a sub-prime meltdown, of catastrophic proportions, was imminent. There was time to make corrective action, to mitigate the risk, but Lehman needed to act swiftly and decisively. With sound management decision making Lehman could minimize their risk as well as that of the risk to the entire financial community. But their dire warnings were ignored by Fuld & Gregory. Both turned their backs on their senior directors. They holed themselves up in the ivory tower of the 31st floor of Lehman Brothers and, instead, pushed harder to accelerate growth of the company. To make matters worse, Dick Fuld angered then Secretary of the United States Treasury, Hank Paulson, at an infamous dinner meeting in the spring or 2008.  At this dinner meeting Fuld showered Paulson with such a diatribe of insults and utter disrespect that Paulson was forced to leave the meeting in a state of great fury. It would be months later when Fuld would come crawling on his hands and knees to Paulson for a bailout of the 158 year old firm. With as contemptuous a person a Fuld in charge of the firm, Paulson could not bring himself to support a bailout.  Fuld's entreaties would go unanswered. Lehman would not be rescued. Fuld & Gregory would go down in history as the men behind the firm that nearly took down Wall Street.