Quoted:
At the top for too long? Gotten soft? Seems as if the entire western world is fixin' to take a huge shit.
We are paying people to do nothing, so they do a lot of it.
We are paying people in government to not enforce property rights and to regulate their buddies into profit, so....they do a lot of it.
We are punishing people who make money, so they're less aggressive and more risk averse.
We are adding costs to businesses so it takes more money and a bigger expected profit for most ventures to make sense.
We are artificially supporting prices throughout the economy via quantitative easing so that while people are making less, the prices aren't going down and they buy less.
I think that about covers it. Short version:
We're being utter morons, and stupidity, like freedom, isn't free.