Here’s the thing about all the crappy financial news we’re reading and hearing these days: it’s complicated.  In fact I’m beginning to believe that even the people who are paid to evaluate and explain developments in the financial and economics fields don’t know what the heck is going on.  What I’d love to see is someone take all this stuff that’s apparently hurtling us towards recession and explain it in a way that a four year old or even your average forty year old could understand.  Nice, simple charts with bright colors would be nice as would real English terms for these financial vehicles. 

Could someone please come up with a nice chart to explain how these things are connected to each other?  For instance show me how Citigroup’s crappy portfolio of whatchamacallits is related to the decline in home values around the country which in turn is related to Bank of America’s purchase of Countrywide which in turn led to some schmo on Wall Street making $4 billion last year and is it a coincidence that’s the same amount of money BofA is spending for Countrywide?  And how does that result in our government promising to send many of us $800-$1,600 to salve our wounds?  And why is that not like giving free coke to a crack addict?

Like I said: bright colors, family tree-like lines connecting all the components and plain English definitions. That would be nice.