The biggest macroeconomic trend of the past twenty years. What's behind the mortgage lending and asset price bubble burst of 2008?

This financial and trade embrace between the United States and China grew so tight that Niall Ferguson, a financial historian, has dubbed the two countries Chimerica.

--Chinese Savings Helped Inflate American Bubble in the NY Times

This explains one of the biggest trade imbalances of the modern age, and how we got to where we are now.