Our memories may be a bit foggy about what brought on the Great Recession of 2008, the worst American economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Even George W. Bush, then president, asked his Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, to explain to him what went on and how it occurred.  In his book, “2008: What Really Happened: Understanding the Great Financial Crisis”, our guest Todd Sheets did a deep dive, with much empirical data to support it, to explain its origins. In his analysis it was not so much the deregulation of financial markets, but rather the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac encouraging middle class and low- income people to get into homes using instruments like variable rate mortgages, along with the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve that brought on a housing bubble like none this nation had ever experienced before.  When the bubble burst all types of lenders had bad paper on their books, a crisis ensued, followed by panic.  Clearly, these institutions from commercial banks to investment banks and their policies played a role in this, as well, Sheets reminds us. It’s a complicated story that deserves a better autopsy if for no other reason than our desire not to repeat its mistakes.