[gfodor]

They say Americans learn about geography though war -- I'm going to say they learn about economics through financial crises. Most people don't understand private equity markets (like they didn't understand CDS's, etc) so it's certainly in the list of contenders for the next crisis.

[davmre]

I'd wager most people don't understand CDS's even now.

[tsotha]

Even professionals in the industry don't understand CDS's. Some of them are deliberately complicated.