The 2008 Financial Crisis

The Great Depression left the American banking system in shambles and left the American people broken and scared for their futures. There were several causes that led up to the enactment of the New Deal and the Social Security Act. A major cause was "Black Tuesday." This was the largest stock market crash in U.S. history that took place on October 29, 1929. The crash happened because wealthy Americans used their revenue to speculate in real estate and the stock market rather than invest in new businesses. Another cause was U.S. banks issuing loans and credits to foreign governments in the amount of billions of dollars. Prior to the Great Depression and the enactment of the FERA, relief was based on the poor laws.

After the crash, many business failed, banks closed, and because of that, lots of workers were out of job. Homes and farms had been lost to foreclosure. In 1933, the government finally decided to do something, congress passed the Securities Act of 1933, which required companies that sold stocks and other securities to communicate important information to consumers and set up systems to prevent fraud. The law was strengthened in 1934 when congress created the Securities and Exchange commission (“Black Tuesday”). Herbert Hoover, the president of US during this event, thought the stock market would get better within 60 days (Stock). The crash also helped lead to the onset of the Great Depression by undermining confidence in the economy, but it

“[It] marked a fundamental break in U.S. history, a drastic change in basic attitudes and institutions that define the roles of citizen and state” (Reynolds 1416). On October 29, 1929, the U.S. Stock Market crashed, or the “the value of stock fell quickly” (Arnesen 36). This occurred after years of massive speculation, which was the purchase of high-risk stocks for a high return. In all actuality, the downward spiral began on October 18, when stocks first declined. The destabilization of the market convinced stockholders to begin pulling out their funds; they also traded stock for a lower amount in value, so shareholders lost the full value of their investments. This “panic” came to fruition on October 24, Black Thursday;

The Glass Steagall Act was passed on 1933, which is also known as The Banking Act to tighten regulation on the way banks did their business. This act was written as an emergency measure when about 5,000 banks failed during the Great Depression. Banks mostly failed because of the way they would invest with money. The act prohibits banks from investing money on investments that turn out to be risky. Banks could no longer sell securities or bonds. The act also created Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect the deposits of individuals, which is still used to this date. The FDIC in this era insures your deposits in your bank up to $250,000. This gave the public confidence again to deposit their money in the bank. In 1933

On October 24th of 1929, the United States Stock Exchanges fell. They fell more than they have ever in US history, a fact that remains true up to the modern era. Stocks, small pieces of ownership over a specified company, hold monetary value. This value suddenly entered a freefall, as a result of underlying problems in the market leading up to the crash. This crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression, a long period of economic hardship all over the United States and many parts of the industrialized world. Marking a period of economic reconstruction following the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Securities and Exchange Commission, a government organization enacted to gain and maintain a sense of stability in the stock market. The SEC has changed since then, but has continued to secure and protect the stock market.

The Glass-Steagall Act came into existence largely due to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. The crash and its aftermath caused Americans to lose faith in the banking system. Glass-Steagall attempted to restore the public’s faith in banks by separating commercial banking from investment banking and providing insurance on bank deposits. The Act worked as intended but its effects slowly diminished over the next 67 years and deregulation in the banking industry culminated with the enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 by then President Bill Clinton.1 The GLBA gutted Glass-Steagall and ended restrictions on intermingling between commercial and investment banking.1 Many believe the GLBA was a major cause of the financial crisis that erupted in 2008.

The financial crisis that happened during 2007-09 was considered the worst financial crisis in the world since the great depression in the 1930s. It leads to a series of banking failures and also prolonged recession, which have affected millions of Americans and paralyzed the whole financial system. Although it was happened a long time ago, the side effects are still having implications for the economy now. This has become an enormously common topic among economists, hence it plays an extremely important role in the economy. There are many questions that were asked about the financial crisis, one of the most common question that dragged attention was ’’How did the government (Federal Reserve) contributed to the financial crisis?’’

The initial act was written in 1933, following the Stock Market crash of 1929. The Glass - Steagall act instilled banks to maintain investment money separate from consumer money (Politifact, Glass-Steagall). In short, the law kept commercial banks (consumers deposit money and take out loans) separate from investment firms (hold securities and make investments). The main concern with repealing the act was that it would put the public in a vulnerable position and predispose them to various types of risks (Politifact, Glass-Steagall). For example, if a colossal bank such as Chase merges with an investment firm that bets on an investment that fails, the commercial side will be put at risk. Following the immediate repeal of the Glass - Steagall act, banks and various other companies began to take advantage of loopholes and consequently created a housing

A recession is full-proof sign of declined activity within the economic environment. Many economists generally define the attributes of a recession are two consecutive quarters with declining GDP. Many factors contribute to an economy's fall into a recession, but the major cause argued is inflation. As individuals or even businesses try to cut costs and spending this causes GDP to decline, unemployment rate can rise due to less spending which can be one of the combined factors when an economy falls into a recession. Inflation is the general rise in prices of goods and services over a period of time. Inflation can happen for reasons such as higher energy and production costs and that includes governmental debt.

Fiscal policy is the use of government revenue (taxes) and expenditure (spending) to influence the economy. (Weil, 2008) Fiscal policy is “used to stabilize the economy over the course of the business cycle.” (Fiscal policy, n.d.) Examples of both of these according to National fiscal policy response to the Great

The stock market is what one would know as a collective group of buyers/sellers that trade stocks, also known as shares on a stock exchange. These securities are listed on the exchange itself and trade freely each and every day. On the exchange, stocks move hands day in and day out. Companies are able to get their stock listed on the exchange at any time that they want. There are other stocks, too...known as OTC stocks or over the counter stocks that go through a specific dealer. Larger companies tend to have their stocks listed on exchanges all throughout the world. Participants in the market can be anyone from your grandma, to retail investors, day traders, institutional investors, and so forth. One notable exchange is the NYSE; also known as The New York Stock Exchange. Moving forward, a stock market crash is when a decline of stock prices takes place throughout the stock market that results in a catastrophic loss of wealth via paper. The crashes are driven strictly by panic 9 times out of 10 a crash takes place. As a crash is happening, panic occurs; the panic keeps evolving and ends up like the snowball effect before you know it. A crash occurs when economic events take place. These events are always bad news... The behavior of traders follows, which leads to a crash when panic ensues. Crashes normally occur of a seven day period and may extend even further. Crashes happen in bear markets as the market is already weak to begin with. Once traders see a drop in prices,

The 1930s, the period of the Great Depression is perhaps the most unstable financial time in United States history. The decade where more than 40 percent of nation’s banks disappeared crippled the economy for years and caused the Senate to pass the Glass-Steagall Act (part of the U.S. Banking Act of 1933). The main purpose of the legislation was to separate commercial and investment banking, limiting commercial banks’ securities and activities within commercial banks and securities firms and to restore confidence in the U.S. banking system. For the next 30 or so years, there was a substantial government safety net and government played a huge role regulating the economy and maintaining the aggregate demand through fiscal and monetary policies. (Arthur MacEwan. “Inequality, Power, and Ideology: Understanding the Causes of the Current Economic Crisis.” Real World Macro, Economic Affairs Bureau, Inc. November 2012.)

The great recession of 2008 affected everyone around the world. The great Recession is considered the second worst economic crisis in American history, behind the Great Depression.

The subprime financial crisis of 2007-2008 was brought on by much more than unethical traders. It consisted of multiple variables: the deterioration in financial institutions’ balance sheets, asset price decline, increase in interest rates, and an increase in market ambiguity. This in turn led to the worsening of the adverse selection and moral hazard situation in the market, which led to a decline in economic activity, bringing forth the banking crisis. After the banking crisis, an unanticipated drop in the price level led to the debt deflation. Thus, the factors causing for the financial crisis are as listed: changes in assets market effects on financial institution’s balance sheets, the banking crisis, an increase in market uncertainty, an increase in interest rates, and government fiscal imbalances, and not only restricted to the unethical traders.

The Lehman Brothers scandal is what many consider to be the catalyst that started the financial meltdown of 2008. This paper is meant to look at what took place during the start of the meltdown and what caused Lehman to fail. Who was involved? What caused one of the largest banking institutions in history to fail? What could have been done differently? These are a few of the questions I’d like to address in the next few pages.