"On his Twitter feed Monday, the Oscar-winning film director also blamed the 2008 economic collapse on Standard & Poor's -- apparently because it and other credit-ratings agencies did not downgrade mortgage-based bonds, which encouraged the housing bubble and let it spread throughout the economy."

I don't like the loud fat slob either, but it's hard to argue with the above statement. I can't say whether that was the start of our troubles, but it sure gave us a good hard shove down the slippery slope.