Introduction
The Global Financial Crisis, also known as The Great Recession, broke out in the United States of America in the middle of 2007 and continued on until 2008. There were many factors that contributed to the cause of The Global Financial Crisis and many effects that emerged, because the impact it had on the financial system. The Global Financial Crisis started because of house market crash in 2007. There were many factors that contributed to the housing market crash in 2007. These factors included: subprime mortgages, the housing bubble, and government policies and regulations. The factors were a result of poor financial investments and high risk gambling, which slumped down interest rates and price of many assets. Government policies and regulations were made in order to attempt to solve the crises that emerged; instead the government policies made backfired and escalated the problem even further.
Subprime Mortgages
The housing market crash, which broke out in the United States in 2007, was caused by high risk subprime mortgages. The subprime mortgage crisis resulted in a sudden reduction in money and credit availability from banks and other lending institutions, which was referred to as a “credit crunch.” The “credit crunch” and its effect spread across the United States and further on to other countries across the world. The “credit crunch” caused a collapse in the housing markets, stock markets and major financial institutions across the globe.
Subprime
During the early 2000 's, the United States housing market experienced growth at an unprecedented rate, leading to historical highs in home ownership. This surge in home buying was the result of multiple illusory financial circumstances which reduced the apparent risk of both lending and receiving loans. However, in 2007, when the upward trend in home values could no longer continue and began to reverse itself, homeowners found themselves owing more than the value of their properties, a trend which lent itself to increased defaults and foreclosures, further reducing the value of homes in a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. The 2008 crash of the near-$7-billion housing industry dragged down the entire U.S. economy, and by extension, the global economy, with it, therefore having a large part in triggering the global recession of 2008-2012.
In 2008, the world experienced a tremendous financial crisis which rooted from the U.S housing market; moreover, it is considered by many economists as one of the worst recession since the Great Depression in 1930s. After posing a huge effect on the U.S economy, the financial crisis expanded to Europe and the rest of the world. It brought governments down, ruined economies, crumble financial corporations and impoverish individual lives. For example, the financial crisis has resulted in the collapse of massive financial institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brother and AIG. These collapses not only influence own countries but also international area. Hence, the intervention of governments by changing and
The housing market had started to decline in 2007, after reaching peak prices in 2006. There was an extremely high amount of subprime mortgages that had been issued in the early 2000’s. Homeowners could no longer afford to live in their homes, payments started going to default, and foreclosures started to rise. According to The Washington Post, there were five contributing factors to the housing market crash: low-doc loans, adjustable- rate mortgages, equity line of credit, more money down than needed, and mortgage insurance.
Firstly, here are some major issues that lead to the housing crisis and the economic collapse. The financial crisis happened because banks were able to create too much money, too quickly, and used it to push up house prices and speculate on financial markets (Financial, 2015). This is a result of investors wanting more mortgages to make more money. Global investors wanted a low risk investment that paid in return. Brokers would sell
The housing slump set off a chain reaction in our economy. Individuals and investors could no longer flip their homes for a quick profit, adjustable rates mortgages adjusted skyward and mortgages no longer became affordable for many homeowners, and thousands of mortgages defaulted, leaving investors and financial institutions holding the bag.
The Financial crisis has its roots in real estate and the famous sub-prime lending crisis. In 1990, during president Bill Clinton administration, Commercial banks and residential properties witnessed their values increase for almost a decade. Increases in the house market coincide with the lowering of interest rate and lending standards to unqualified borrowers accepting them to take out mortgages whereas at the same time the government deregulations mixed the lines between traditional financial institutions and mortgages lenders. The real estate loans were distributing through out the financial & Banking system in the shape of CDOs and other complex derivatives in order to scatter or spread the risk; however, when home values stopped to rise and homeowners flopped to keep up with their payments and banks were forced to foreclosure their homes.
The 2008 financial crisis led to a sharp increase in mortgage foreclosures primarily subprime leading to a collapse in several mortgage lenders. Recurrent foreclosures and the harms of subprime mortgages were caused by loose lending practices, housing bubble, low interest rates and extreme risk taking (Zandi, 2008). Additionally, expert analysis on the 2008 financial crisis assert that the cause was also due to erroneous monetary policy moves and poor housing policies. The federal government encouraged the expansion of risky mortgages to under-qualified borrowers. Congress pushed for the support of affordable housing through extended procurement of non-prime loans for applicants with low income (Zandi, 2008). The cutting down
While 2008 neared its close, financial institutions capsized worldwide. Earlier that year the main American stock index, The Dow Jones, began a downward spiral that ended up peaking the following March; a historic market low comparable to its 1997 levels and despite a sizeable recession, the dot com bust, occurring in between the two troughs (1). More broadly, the International Monetary Fund recorded a 1.7% decrease in global GDP during the approximately two-year period (2). This global contraction of economic growth became known as the Great Recession, the worst financial crisis since the one that indirectly sent the entire world into yet another bloody war. Just like the Dow, the responsibility for this international calamity lurks behind American markets. This collapse is inextricably correlated with the burst of the American housing bubble and multiple subsequent bankruptcies that required Federal Reserve intervention to solve. Nonetheless, our government, through imposing limitations on shadow banking or not deregulating the banking sector in the first place, possessed the capability to prevent this financial disaster throughout its development.
The 2008 financial meltdown resulted in the most treacherous investment landscape observed since the great depression. The most notorious issue was the subprime mortgage crisis, which had a ripple effect felt through every market in the world. The banks, whose leverage rate should never have been higher than two times capitalization, surged as high as thirty to forty times market cap. With this level of exposure, any unforeseen market fluctuations could mean disaster. Lehman Brothers, the oldest investment bank on Wall Street, went bankrupt and thousands lost their jobs. Outside of finance, thousands of companies in the United States and abroad had to fire significant portions of their workforce, thus furthering the economic decline and plunging the US into an economic recession. In the late 1990s, Congress repealed the legislation separating commercial and investment banks, which resulted in investment banks overreaching their bounds. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was enacted due to the effects of the subprime mortgage crisis, which allowed the US Treasury to spend billions of dollars to bail out the investment banks by purchasing distressed assets. However, the bailout plan has created a debate over whether it was a good idea for the government to bailout the investment banks. Also, if the government fared better or worse in the years following the bailout.
The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was a set of events that led to the 2008 financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage defaults and foreclosures. This paper seeks to explain the causes of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and how this has led to a generalized credit crisis in other financial sectors that ultimately affects the real economy. In recent decades, financial industry has developed quickly and various financial innovation techniques have been abused widely, which is the main cause of this international financial crisis. In addition, deregulation, loose monetary policies of the Federal Reserve, shadow banking system also play
In early 2008, policy-makers in the United States needed to deal with the frightening after-effects of what had appeared to be a glorious housing boom. The most immediate problem was a wave of foreclosures, which a Senate report predicted could reach 2 million by the end of 2009. Lawmakers sought to relieve the resulting pain and to preserve the longstanding dream of raising the US homeownership rate. Amidst a sea of lawsuits and recrimination, they needed to figure out where the US system for financing home purchases had gone wrong and how it could be fixed. To do this, lawmakers needed to understand what had happened, particularly because housing had until then seemed
The 2008 financial crisis can be traced back to two factor, sub-prime mortgages and debt. Traditionally, it was considered difficult to get a mortgage if you had bad credit or did not have a steady form of income. Lenders did not want to take the risk that you might default on the loan. In the 2000s, investors in the U.S. and abroad looking for a low risk, high return investment started putting their money at the U.S. housing market. The thinking behind this was they could get a better return from the interest rates home owners paid on mortgages, than they could by investing in things like treasury bonds, which were paying extremely low interest. The global investors did not want to buy just individual mortgages. Instead, they bought
Just after ten years of Asian financial crisis, another major financial crisis now concern for all developed and some developing countries is “Global Financial Crisis 2008.” It is beginning with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, September 14, 2008 and spread like a flood. At first U.S banking sector fall in a great liquidity crisis and simultaneously around the world stock markets have fallen, large financial institutions have collapsed or been bought out, and governments in even the wealthiest nations have had to come up with rescue packages to bail out their financial systems. (Global issue)
Housing prices in the United States rose steadily after the World War II. Although some research indicated that the financial crisis started in the US housing market, the main cause of the financial crisis between 2007 and 2009 was actually the combination of housing bubble and credit boom. The banks created so much loan that pushed the housing price to the peak. As the bank lend out a huge amount of money, the level of individual debt also rose along with the housing price. Since the debt rose faster than people’s income, people were unable to repay their loan and bank found themselves were in danger. As this showed a signal for people, people withdrew money from the banks they considered as “safe” before, and increased the “haircuts” on repos and difficulties experienced by commercial paper issuers. This caused the short term funding market in the shadow banking system appeared a
In 2008, the world experienced a tremendous financial crisis which is rooted from the U.S housing market. Moreover, it is considered by many economists as one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression in 1930s. After bringing a huge effect on the U.S economy, the financial crisis expanded to Europe and the rest of the world. It ruined economies, crumble financial corporations and impoverished individual lives. For example, the financial crisis has resulted in the collapse of massive financial institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG. These collapses not only influenced own countries but also international scale. Hence, the intervention of governments by changing and expanding the monetary