The economic mess is wide, deep, and pervasive. This list of 25 culprits is less important for naming them, than as a tool for understanding the magnitude of the problem. As an investor or merely someone who is trying to save a little for retirement who can you trust? The leaders who took us into this disaster all got wealthy. They did so on the backs of the rest of us. If there was a 'class warfare' it began with the deregulation of the Reagan administration.