1/ Very interesting and (perhaps) prescient paper from Hyman Minsky called The Financial Instability Hypothesis, published in 1992. It has a three piece framework which helps explain what we are seeing right now. http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp74.pdf
So: units start off happy with what they have, then become larger as they gain the ability to accurately predict the future, then become cancerous and reply on continuous growth to live.