BTW, who tells you that it is caused by the RE collapse?[/QUOTE, originally posted by Taurean Bull]

Briefly: local media (and their analists) give us the following explanation:

Too many loans were given to people who should not be getting any loans, they were not able to pay off their mortgages, which caused the housing market to collapse, which triggered other problems,... The general idea these analists have is that the country has been outrunning it's income for too long.