The main reason why America is facing such a financial upheaval is its unchecked financial policies.The Capitalist economy thought ,come what may but it will rule the market scenarios the way it had ruled for years. It did not take lessons from the fall of once Soviet Union.
Actually the unchecked financial practice of lending to high risk borrows is the main reason for this mess. There are thousands of money lenders who could grant easy money to borrowers without checking on their repaying capacities. This resulted in people taking loans even when they could not pay back, also those with repayment capacity took bigger loans for bigger houses that they could not afford. All this resulted in large defaulters and the prices of real estate went down.
All banks and other financial institutions faced heavy losses and now the effect is so dismal that once the most powerful financial bank like Lehman Brothers is also applying for bankruptcy. It is high time to check such policies otherwise the America will soon lose its tag of the strongest superpower.