Pope Benedict has expressed his opinion on the economic crisis, comparing the global financial system to a house built "on sand" (a parable used by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, in Mt 7:24-29): "Whoever builds his life on this reality, on material things, on success ... builds (his house) on sand. Only the word of God is the foundation of all reality… We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes, it is nothing. All these things that appear to be real are in fact secondary. Only God's words are a solid reality". (source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/07/religion.creditcrunch ).

His assessment is well illustrated in my opinion with the process how the so-called "sub-prime" loans brought to this mess. The chart in the following article shows how the house-built-on-sand of the present crisis became to be: Chain of Fools