Summary: The 2008 Financial Crisis

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Financial crisis The financial crisis occurred in 2008, where the world economy experienced the most dangerous crisis ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It started in 2007 when the home prices in the U.S. Dropped significantly, spreading very quickly, initially to the financial sector of the U.S. and subsequently to the financial markets in other countries. The victims in the United States were: the largest commercial banks, the whole investment banking industry, the major savings and loans, the largest insurance company, and the two enterprises licensed by the government to smoothen the progress of mortgage lending. The monetary policies that caused the financial crisis were that the Federal bank reserves provided banks with …show more content…

The low interest rates encouraged borrowing and thus there was increase in demand for various kinds of financial assets, leading to increase in prices of these assets whilst lowering the interest rates. This led to the housing bubble deflating. The low rates were worsened by the modern financial instruments, for instance collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and the MBS. The Federal Reserve responded to the crisis by lowering its major federal funds rate, in order to provide extra liquidity to the financial system, offered direct credit lines to a wider variety of financial institutions and stretched out the range of security it would be willing to agree to in return for loans. These actions took by the Fed helped the financial system to maintain confidence and liquidity, as measurement to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis (Claessens, Valencia, Kose, Claessens & Laeven, M. (2011). The government also gave direct aid to several major financial firms. It strengthened the housing agencies .the treasury promised to add $100 billion into the agencies in order to provide short-term liquidity, sustain a positive growth, and if they needed and obtain mortgage securities in the open market. These provided stability in the financial markets. The solutions to the crisis were short-term since they were only to minimize the crisis in the

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