I have dedicated the last 5 years to discovering what is going on so I will try my best to condense it down.
In terms of a 'shorter' business cycle view (less than 10 year perspective) to what is wrong is that we are not in a recession but in a deleverage. We haven't had one of those since WW2 so most people don't know what it is and think it is a recession. A deleverage is a once in a 100 year massive transfer of wealth event. I have put resources on what a deleverage is at the end of this reply.
The long term problem is that the Fed is a private bank. This means that the US Government and American citizens do not control the Fed. Forget the façade that makes them look like a branch of Government, especially the whole Presidential appointment of the Fed Chairman. It is a private bank that gets to print money and sell it to the US Government that American citizens are forced to use. That means that the US Government and American citizens are slaves with no control over their future. Each dollar printed is a debt burden on the American people and a debasement of the current currency value. Essentially think of printing money as a way that the Fed transfers wealth from your pocket into theirs. Furthermore, I believe that the Fed manipulates the economic cycle to create wealth transfer events that they reap the benefits of.
For further information look to the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0
http://www.tullettprebon.com/documents/strategyinsights/tpsi...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mII9NZ8MMVM
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Economy-Grows-Why-Crashes/dp/047...
Also, Sal Khan has this video on the topic: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-fi...
This book is an outstanding place to start. It addresses a myriad of economic concepts in simple language. It's available for free through the Mises Institute.
"How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes" by Peter Schiff http://www.amazon.com/How-Economy-Grows-Why-Crashes/dp/04705...
This book gives a simple overview of macro issues and is an interesting and well-presented tale about how economies grow from the basic "man on an island" scenario to a complex market. It also covers Austrian business cycle theory which explains the boom-bust cycle in economies.
Both of these books are from the "Austrian School" of economics, which is named for its Austrian founder, Carl Menger. I find these arguments compelling as they are firmly grounded in logic and are based on the principle that the human individual and her actions form the basis of all economic activity.
The giants of the Austrian school are Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard (highly readable) if you want to seek out more advanced theory.
Very short read - economics basics from libertarian view.