In the rest of this section I try to knit it together into a single story, probably risking oversimplification along the way. The narrative here is necessarily linear, but that obscures many important feedbacks and interactions. These feedbacks are a very real part of understanding and coping with the turmoil.
It is no accident that the massive simultaneous surges in the prices of commodities, equities, housing and other real estate around the world since the mid-2000s until 2007 matches the surge in credit. In hindsight, this correlation can be explained fairly simply as the mutual reinforcement of a number of powerful factors.