An interesting reminder of why the world is half buggered today from Laura Ingraham with these stats from the USA :

# of People Employed in August 2001: 132 million
# of People Employed in August 2011: 131.1 million

Unemployment rate, August 2001: 4.9% (the highest in 4-years at that time)
Unemployment rate, August 2011: 9.1%

Dow Jones Industrial Average, Sept. 10, 2001: 9605.01
DJIA Sept. 8th, 2011: 11295.81

Federal Spending % of GDP in 2001: appx 18%
Federal Spending % of GDP in 2011: appx 24%

Debt in 2001: around 32% of GDP
Debt in 2011: around 100% of GDP

The dollar has fallen 37 percent in the past decade

Gold has increased 500%

I think I shall have to have a hunt around for the equivalent UK stats to see what the Gordoom boom did for us over here.