Most economists failed to foresee the economic dynamics that actually led to the crisis, because they failed to pay enough attention to the rapid increase in US total debt. Instead, they focused exclusively on US foreign debt, ignoring household debt (mortgage and consumer debt), public debt, business debt, and financial debt.
而大多数经济学家之所以无法预见到危机背后的真正经济驱动力，是因为他们对美国总债务的快速增长缺乏足够的关注。实际上他们把注意力都放在了美国的外债上，却忽视了家庭负债（抵押贷款和消费者债务）、公共负债，商业债务和金融债务等方面的问题。