In Laymen's terms

*Location: random Irish bar on 42nd and 6th in Manhattan
* Date: few days ago, around 7 pm
*Who: Me and my friend K., whom I've known since college

K: Ok, so you have studied all of this economic stuff. Can you please explain to me what the hell is going on and why are people this freaked out?

Me: Ok, do you want me to go with route of laying out all the financial terms and how it all played out, or would you rather I go with the simplistic Laymen's terms of it all?

K: Go with Laymen's terms.

Me: Ok, so imagine the economy as this big nice Bonfire y'all have created a while ago.

K: Ok...

Me: And instead of enjoying this bonefire, you know, getting warm next to it, or roasting marshmallows on it or something, you keep obsessing about making the fire bigger. Every year the fire has to be bigger than the year before or you have all somehow failed at something. So you keep throwing wood to the fire, because it has to keep getting bigger, right? Well, as any stupid camper would tell you, if you keep getting the fire bigger one of two things will happen: Either you will run out of wood, and the fire will eventually cool down and be put out, or the fire will get to be so big, that no one will be able to control it, and it will burn everything around it.

K: And which happened here?

Me: Both!

K: We are screwed, aren't we?

Me: In more ways than one my dear. More ways than one!