The birth of financialization in the early 1980s was morning in America because finance-- the collateralization of previously low-risk assets and the resulting explosion of credit and leverage--gooses demand and asset valuations.

Now that we've at long last reached the demise of financialization, it's mourning in America as the hyper-stimulation has reached its zenith and is beginning its inevitable end-game of uncontrolled implosion. The hyper-financialization of American life has fatally distorted the nation's production, politics, values and social order.

Regardless of our political persuasion, we're all mourning for what's been lost to either decay or erosion, both of which are so gradual that we cannot discern the full extent of the damage. We sense it, though, and this fuels the nation's distemper.

The decay, erosion and distemper remind me of a quote from French author Michel Houellebecq:

"I have the impression of being caught up in a network of complicated, minute, stupid rules, and I have the impression of being herded towards a uniform kind of happiness, toward a kind of happiness that doesn't really make me happy."

Substitute con for happiness and we have an insight into the source of mourning in America: we're being conned 24/7, on every level and in every nook and cranny of the economy and society.