Nassim Taleb, Black Swans for an (easy) understanding of the math. Then every issue of the economist in the last 10 years (I'm not kidding). Then sit back and thing about it. Everybody is trying to equate this depression to the "Great Depression" even when all the economic indicators are MUCH worse. You also need the 1970s through late 1990s education in economic indicator abuse by the US and International organizations. After 1974 fuel crisis they started really messing with the numbers but Clinton made it high art. Bush just followed the script. As such comparisons are hard and that means you need to look for the changing patterns. The real estate debacle has good roots in the 1980s Japanese bubble which led to their lost decade. Lots of good literature on that too.