The events that led to the 2008 financial sector crisis were caused by a level of criminality unprecedented in American history. The fraud was done at a massive scale, and pretty much in broad daylight.
I'm not sure why there seems to be a lack of understanding about how massive these crimes were. Trillions of dollars in fraudulent securities were sold the world over. Top financial companies were involved in the fraud. They bribed all the rating agencies to give these worthless and fraudulent securities top rating. They knew what they were doing. It was fraud.
All these strange events are just part of a continuum. A wrecking ball is being used to bring down the government, and all these events (2008, deb ceiling extortion, U.S. downgrade by S&P, etc.) are blows from it, happening at a faster and faster pace.
Democracy is being taken down. Expect more of these events to take place as we head into the 2012 elections. There will be massive voter suppression, manipulation of vote counts, disruptive events, vicious and relentless personal attacks on the president.
The more disruption, confusion, fear, market manipulation, there is,the more power and wealth is rapidly transferred to the people perpetrating the takeover.
These things are related. It's a conspiracy.