U.S.debt continues it's upward spiral > A DECADE HAS PASSED since the height of the last major financial crisis. And if you have a pessimistic – or practical – mindset, you know that Americans are due for another money meltdown in the future. Today’s economy looks different than it did 11 years ago. The U.S. stock market has experienced the longest bull market in history. The unemployment rate is low, and consumer confidence is up. But what goes up must come down, and crises tend to take place at or soon after a cyclical peak in the economy and during periods of overconfidence, says Robert Bruner, professor and dean emeritus at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. “I’ll begin with the proposition that we are terrible at forecasting crises,” he says. He adds, “I would say that we will never prevent financial crises in the future, despite the best efforts and the hopefully competent work of regulators, bank CEOs and the like.”

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