As the United States and the world sort through the credit crisis, and the financial markets continue to gyrate and governments craft and recraft programs in an attempt to avert disaster, one wonders what went so very wrong with those much-touted risk management systems of major financial institutions. Werenโ€™t the big guys with the highly polished reputations supposed to have in-depth knowledge of what their risks were, and manage those risks to be profitable and sustainable? How did they, and we, end up here?