Under the hood, our human propensity toward "storytelling" and social cohesion is both a blessing and our bane. People collectively go for convenient (but leaky) abstractions, leaders, influencers, fads.

AKA the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

The cesspool is not specifically American. As long as the music plays, economy's touted "fundamentals" pretty much come down to ape psychology. The music just plays louder is some places than others, at the moment.