Requesting Experts

We have been having a good debate about the causes of the 'current crisis' in the U.S. and the government's reaction in the thread of that name. However, I think we've exhausted most of the possiblities for a conversation involving people who don't have much technical knowledge on the subject (speaking for myself anyhow). Are we lucky enough to have any trained economists or professional investors out there? If so, I invite them to analyze the crisis here in a new thread. Hopefully, there are some such people on both sides of the issue as I see it: a Keyenesian and a disciple of the Austrian School. Anyway, I just want to watch that kind of argument unfold and will try to involve myself as little as possible.

I'll start with a few questions to get things going:

(1) What is the crisis? Is it incidental, a result of temporary economic conditions, or is it indicative of a wider problem in economic structure or government policy?

(2) How should the government have reacted?

(3) Regardless of its desirability, what have been or will be the effects of the actual government intervention?