I cannot get a definitive date on this comic, but it’s circulating around the internet like wildfire.  Most people agree it’s at least a few years old.
The Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is written and illustrated by Bill Watterson.
 

We think this speaks for itself.  Everyone knows the government, corporations, everyone manipulates numbers to make them seem better.  It’s scary when you look at the truth behind some of these numbers.  A very interesting image by mint, originally seen on Unemployment Rate: A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis.

Please check out The Scott Adams Blog’s posting, Financial Markets Explained.Â
From the followup post:
Think of financial theory as a stool. The stool is supported by three legs, or truisms.

History always repeats.
Past performance is no indication of future returns.
Asshats are trying to steal your money.

These three truisms can explain any financial phenomenon. For example, if your [...]

A post on Your Debt Free Info, called “How the Stock Market Works” has a quick story that I’ve never heard before, we have pasted it below:
“Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers seeing that there were [...]

October 14th – Official Slap Your Irritating Co-workers
Holiday: Do you have a co-worker who talks nonstop about nothing, working your last nerve with tedious and boring details that you don’t care about?
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Do you have a co-worker who ALWAYS screws up stuff creating MORE work for you?
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Do you have a co-worker who kisses so [...]

It’s ok, the government knows what it’s doing.

You’d be scared too if:

You couldn’t get a date (Gisele wants to be paid in Euros now)
You can’t buy oil anymore (Iran has quit using the dollar for oil)
Brazil and Argentina don’t welcome you anymore (Brazil and Argentina have abandoned the dollar for trading purposes)
Your homeland, the streets [...]

We can all use some humor.  We here at Why Banks Fail, chose to put the amount of this “small” loan (relatively) in perspective..
Please check out our poll in our forums on how YOU would spend $37.8 billion in party plans (AIG took a vacation in Florida)?

Rent out the Dominican Republic for a year (annual GDP [...]

While this is a very dire situation, we can all probably use a laugh by now.
Tech Crunch has an article by Michael Arrington, September Madness.
Below is a picture posted in that article:
 

This video goes into the history of how banks got to be the way they are.  How credit works, how savings accounts work, and how the fiat economy works (well, works or doesn’t work — how it operates).

For anyone that has not seen it, this is the simplest explaintion of the mortgage melt down.
http://www.businesspundit.com/sub-prime/