2008 Financial Meltdown Paper

During the spring of 2008, rumors were circulating that the investment bank Bear Stearns would fail due to their massive investments in subprime mortgages, or “toxic assets.” These rumors were able to decline the companyʻs stock from $171 to $57 dollars a share, and bankruptcy was imminent. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, realized that Bear Stearns could not be allowed to go bankrupt because they were deeply connected to many other firms, which would result in major economic failure. In response to the crisis, Bernanke lent money to JP Morgan, which then lent the money to Bear Stearns, as the Federal Reserve could not directly lend money to Bear Stearns as it is an unregulated investment bank. After this process, Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, relied on the principle of moral hazard and notified the other banks that

On October 3, 2008 President George W. Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, otherwise known as the “bailout.” The Purpose of this act was defined as to, “Provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of trouble assets for the purpose of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes” (Emergency Economic Stabilization Act). In my paper I will explain and show the relationship between the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and subprime lending, the collapse of the housing market, bundled mortgage securities, liquidity, and the Government 's efforts to bailout the nation 's banks.

There are many research institutions that are quick to point the finger and blame one specific entity or event for the events that occurred during the economic decline in 2008; however, the entire situation cannot be put onto the shoulders of one company, or the faults of one industry. There were several causes that played into the financial crisis, but two causes stand out as the pre-dominant elements of the collapse of major financial establishments: manipulation of the housing market by two government-funded companies, and the greed of wealthy Wall Street bankers and investors who knowingly took advantage of the system.

These losses necessitated governmental action in the financial markets. Companies such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns lost all of their stock’s value and were forced into bankruptcy. This risk spread throughout the American banks, forcing the American government to step in and buy all of the securitized, troubled assets from the balance sheets of

The federal government reacted to the financial crisis that emerged in 2007 and affected industries in many ways. This crisis caused an economic meltdown that saw a lot of people lose their jobs, homes, and savings. The Federal Reserve implemented several solutions that were designed to improve the liquid assets of the financial institutions and create favorable conditions in financial markets. These solutions resulted in changes to the Federal Reserve's financial records. The solutions were enforced so as to fulfill the Reserve’s objectives on financial policies which involve employment and price inflation.

In the late 2007, early 2008 the United States and the world was hit with the most serious economic downturn since The Great Depression in 1929. During this time the Federal Reserve played a huge role in assuring that it would not turn into the second Great Depression. In this paper, we will be discussing what the Federal Reserve did during this time including a discussion of our nation’s three main economic goals which are GDP, employment, and inflation. My goal is to describe the historic monetary and fiscal policy efforts undertaken by the U.S. Government and Federal Reserve including both the traditional and non-traditional measures to ease credit markers and stimulate the economy.

The financial collapse is a very complex issue rooted in multiple causes, making it hard to put into a single sentence. However at it’s core the reason for the collapse is that many investors and banks tried to get rich by taking on assumptions about the housing market and taking on huge risks that they didn’t realize the full extent of.

Additionally, when America’s economy was melting in 2008, the Federal Reserve played a big role to stabilize it. Besides the Great Depression during the years 1929 through 1939 the worst economic time for the United States, 2008 was unmistakable one of the worst years of America’s economy history. When this economic recession was taking place, the Fed had to take action to avoid another depression and to stop a fall from the financial system. With the help of the Federal Reserve J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.’s they planned to help Bear Stearns (an investment bank) with financial assistance to help the government to buyout AIG, a well-known insurance company. This helped to produce a strategy targeting to stabilize the credit market and also the short-term interest rate from 45% to almost 0 from the benchmark (Coste). Thanks to the Federal Reserve and their well design plan to avoid another recession they prevented the economy of the world or better known as Macroeconomic system from falling and getting it

While there are several speculated causes to the recession of 2007, one cause that stands out is the housing bubble burst. "As the housing bubble burst and trillions of dollars ' worth of toxic mortgages began to go bad in 2007, fear spread through the massive firms that form the heart of Wall Street ("Meltdown")". The first repercussions of the housing bubble bursting were the floating rumors about the investment bank, Bear Stearns. The rumors of the bank 's imminent bankruptcy were so abundant, that they became a self fulfilling prophecy ("Meltdown"). In an attempt to save the bank, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke created a deal with JPMorgan ("Meltdown"). This deal stated that "the federal government would use $30 billion to cover Bear Stearns ' questionable assets tied to toxic mortgages

“His words had the power to raise or drop the markets”. Alan Greenspan spent 5 terms as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. Greenspan had a huge impact on the U.S. economy through his way of dealing with inflation. He achieved the role of being one of the most powerful men in America. Alan Greenspan was born on March 6th 1926 in New York City. Greenspan’s studies where first centered on music and jazz. He applied to Julliard but soon quit to join the Henry Jerome orchestra. After that he joined New York University where he received a B.S, M.A, and Ph.D(1977). in economics.

There are believed to be key people to blame for the crash of 2008. One of them being, Angelo Mozilo, for CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp. Countrywide sold millions of mortgages to people questionable credit history. They reigned as the largest sub-prime mortgage lender at that time. Mozilo, along with selling millions of loans, he created “VIP programs” where certain politicians were offered special rates on their mortgages bringing home $470 million. He cashed out his shares of the company prior to its

There has been a debate for years on what caused the Financial Crisis in 2008 and if there was one main cause, or a series of unfortunate events that led to the crisis. The crisis began when the market was no longer funding many financial entities. The Federal Reserve then lowered the federal funds rate from 5.25% to almost zero percent in December 2008. The Federal Government realized that this was not enough and decided to bail out Bear Stearns, which inhibited JP Morgan Chase to buy Bear Stearns. Unfortunately Bear Stearns was not the only financial entity that needed saving, Lehman Brothers needed help as well. Lehman Brothers was twice the size of Bear Stearns and the government could not bail them out. Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on September 15, 2008. Lehman Brothers bankruptcy caused the market tensions to become disastrous. The Fed then had to bail out American International Group the day after Lehman Brothers failed (Poole, 2010). Some blame poor policy making and others blame the government. The main causes of the financial crisis are the deregulation of banks and bank corruption.

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

The 2008 US financial crisis triggered global economic shocks, not only profound influence or even change the financial pattern of the world economy, but also a vivid lesson to the global banking industry. After the outbreak of the crisis, the United States Government has put forward the toughest financial reform bill for decades, expanding market intervention, and with economic globalization and financial liberalization, we need to absorb the experience and lessons of American banking system reform in the context of financial crisis. Citigroup is a typical example of the bank that influenced by the financial crisis and restructured.

Before the pre-2008 economic recession era, people were ignorant of what was bound to happen. Life was a party. Incomes were steadily rising: most people in every financial class had a credit card, a family to support, and an opportunity to do so by moving into the biggest house they could find. Mortgage loans were given out to anybody with a heartbeat and credit rating, this is called a subprime mortgage. If somebody wanted a new home they could get it, no matter if they could afford it or not. However, when interest rates started to rise people were not able to pay their mortgages and their homes were foreclosed upon. Homeowners who were not careful — or just plain unlucky — when choosing what mortgage was suitable for their income were either left homeless or stuck living paycheck to paycheck. The capitalism party was over. Everyone stopped buying what they once thought they could afford just so they could maintain proper housing, in turn a recession began. So was the 2008 financial crisis caused by the homeowners? Homeowners in the United States — for the most part — are not gluttons for bigger and better homes they can not afford, it was a case of misinformation perpetrated by investment banks and mortgage lenders in the pursuit of more money. When higher interest rates began to kick in misinformed homeowners could not pay their steep mortgages anymore, resulting in multitudes of mortgage defaults. Mortgage defaults and the housing bubble did play a significant role in