Jack, what mostly created our present financial mess is that the major banks were allowed to create a vast bubble of "magic" money out of thin air by making a tremendous number of high risk loans (so they could collect interest and get richer). Enough of those loans eventually defaulted that the whole system began to collapse, and the government stepped in to bail out the criminals who caused that! I suggest you read this book about how banks create money out of thin air to enrich themselves: "The Creature from Jeckyl Island"

It will make quite clear why we have these "boom and bust" scenarios over and over again and why the dollar is worth less and less with every passing year.