The Financial Crisis Of 2007 to 2008 was also called the Global Financial Crisis. It had its roots In the United States of America’s Mortgaging Market. It, however, had a much more profound impact over almost all the countries around the globe. It has been labeled as the worst economic crisis since the Great depression of the 1930’s.
The focal point in its initial stage was subprime in the USA mortgage market which eventually became an international calamity when Investment Bank Lehman Brothers had to fold and cease the operations. The extent of risky activities, banks such as The Lehman Brothers, was involved in helped to magnify the economic woes to a global level with ease. Thousands of people losing millions and billions of money as the global recession was in a full swing.
These Malpractices ensured that there were massive bail outs to guarantee that the whole economic system did not fall on its head and it can also be called a catalyst for impending European Euro and Debt crisis (Bandyopadhyay). A whole set of legislative reforms were introduced to prevent and safe guard against them, such as Frank-Dodd Wall Street Reform in 2010.
Despite being the trillions paid out of the US federal government, for instance, eighty five billion to AIG, borrowing money had become much harder. Stock markets all over the world followed a sharp drop on a regular basis while some even crashed.
Other causes included weak and fraudulent underwriting practices, easy availability of credit on housing matters. While at the same time, in the Capitalist economies, practices like Predatory lending were encouraged and became common, which are both unethical and violated the fiduciary and due diligence duties owned to the consumer (Necati 8697-8706). In laymen terms it was a classic bait and switch glossed over by false advertising.
The global financial crises of 2007 and 2008 demonstrated that banks were not able to regulate themselves and without the oversight of government like Doss-Frank, another such crisis could be recreated by them.
References
Bandyopadhyay, Sankhanath. “Revisiting 2008 Financial Crisis.” SSRN Electronic Journal (2013): n. pag. Web.
Necati, Aydın. “The 2008 Financial Crisis: A Moral Crisis Of Capitalism.” African Journal of Business Management 5.22 (2011): 8697-8706. Web.
