Personal Narrative: The 2008 Financial Crisis

The fresh morning air was cool against my face. Father had been gone for a while now, he had been called by his work for some “serious business.” As my sister Aliah, and I played in the pond by our 2 story house, we heard a faint muttering of Father’s pick-up.

It's been a while since I wrote to you, but life has been a struggle lately with the Great Depression hammered down to our nation. People losing their jobs, their house, even their loved ones. I continuously hear story about people commiting suicide because they can't feed their family, or because the depression of being a liability. The rate of people living off the street keep increasing, some survived with their newspaper blankets, while some life were taken away by the cold. No one talk about "hope" these days, as if there is anything to be hopeful about the situation. My business definitely took a hit because the amount of people who can afford to buy stuff keep disappearing. There is no question that I have to close my shop if that will

Everyone experiences sadness — sadness is a part of life. However, with many people, their sadness can escalate into a feeling of emptiness and a lack of motivation. I have encountered this, and I am still dealing with it today. Few can remember the moment it happened, but I can. For me, my depression started on my 14th birthday. It happened during a sleepover at my house around 12 a.m. I can remember just laying on my couch texting my friend all content and the next thing I know, I just feel this empty sadness take over, it was unlike anything I had felt before. It had taken me awhile but eventually I realized what was happening to me. It started out as just sadness for a few years, then it morphed into this numbing emptiness. I could still

I remember coming home on a Monday afternoon and standing in front of the mirror in my room. Mascara and eyeliner were smeared all over my face, and my eyes were puffy. I went over to my dresser and grabbed the small pill bottle laying on top of it. I started off by taking 5. 5 turned into 10; 10 turned into 20; and before I knew it, I had taken 35 pills.

In the United States there has been times of economic hardships for Americans. One of those hard times was during the Great Depression. This place in history was when agriculture, the banking system and our nation’s purchasing power was in turmoil. For many farmers droughts had taken a toll. Their farms were turned in large dust bowls and growing crops was almost impossible. The banking system was very volatile because of bad investments. Many of the banking institutions had invested a lot of money in the stock market and loaned businesses money in which they invested into the stock market. The stock market crashed on Black Tuesday in 1929. Billions of dollars were lost on this day. The conditions of the Great Depression called for some new

In 2007, the U.S. economy experienced one of the greatest downturns since the Depression era, and furthered by the collapse on a global scale. The bubble burst on the housing market and the house of cards called the mortgage industry tumbled down, no longer able to sustain charade of success. This caused the collapse of some of the largest financial institutions, once thought to be immortal. This rippled into a massive tightening of the belts of many companies, as they found themselves without lines of credit, lack of business, and the daisy-chain collapse of their support networks. Who paid the final price? Companies cut costs through pay cuts, layoffs, and closings. While this may have saved jobs for many, the feeling of loss and

Everyone knows the feeling of wanting to speak to someone yet the fear of rejection is stuck in the back of your mind, refusing to leave. "Painfully shy", a term used by fellow peers when describing me, and I must admit that they are far from wrong. I find myself stuck in an endless cycle of worry and regret, missing out on great opportunities as the thought of socialising with people I don't know makes my stomach churn and my palms sweat, a wave of nausea crashing over my entire being. I don't think "shy" is the correct label for me. However, I'm unsure what it is that's wrong with me, nor do I know if I will ever find out.

They always say that depression is something that’s all in your head. It’s something made up, something fabricated by your own selfish internal world. You don’t realize when it hits you or how it hits you. One day you just realize you no longer know how to feel; you’ve become numb. Growing up I was happy. I lived a happy life. I had a bed of my own and a roof over my head. I was surrounded by friends and family who loved me. I was content for as long as I can remember.

The financial crisis that occurred in 2007-2008 is narrowly related to what happened with the housing market and the foreclosure crisis. In 2006, the housing market peaked due to newly available loans such as interest adjustable loans, interest only loans, and zero down loans for people with low-income jobs. Housing prices were increasing radically and new homeowners were taking out mortgages that they would be unable to pay for in the future, all in order to be able to afford homes with such steep real estate value. By 2007, things began to go downhill. Interest rates had begun to rise steeply, mortgage companies had to file bankruptcy, and banks across the country required bailout funds from the U.S. Treasury in an effort to recover

Depression is intoxicating. She has celestial silver skin and Her eyes are stormy gray with hints of ocean wave from within. When the light hits just right, they reflect a peaceful time when everything at night came to life. She once disguised herself as a companion to me and my best friend, Imagination, an artist with cotton candy hair and emerald eyes. Imagination, Happiness, Compassion, Idealism, Ambition and I had found a home in each other. We would sit all day coloring in abstract patterns with blended water color or riding horses through lively fields of painted grass. We would drone on and on about the future and how we would do this, that, and endless others. Idealism, Ambition, and Compassion set their elaborate plan for us being humble millionaires who would make the world a better place. In unison we always said, “We have potential.” That was until Depression started tagging along. We tried to help Her fit in, but Her water colors smudged in all the wrong places and She had to start again. All the horses ran from Her, grass wept

In 2008, the recession hit hard in St. George, Utah, which caused my father to be laid-off and become unemployed for two years. With the urging of a friend, my dad packed up his tools and drove to Williston, North Dakota with no job and no place to live. He took a leap of faith to save our family, and the day he arrived, he found a job and a place to live. Having him leave me was heartbreaking. He went from being there daily to quarterly. He is my hero because he made the biggest sacrifice of his life. He moved fourteen hours away to work twelve hours a day and seven days a week to support us.

There were many factors that caused this economic collapse, posing a deep impact on society and politics during this period. The stock market crash of 1929 began the economic turmoil that devastated lives of those especially in the industrial field of work. When the stock market failed, so did the banks of America. Bank deposits were uninsured so when a bank failed, families lost their savings. Unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, remaining banks became unwilling to create loans. This worsened the situation causing a reduction in expenditures. There also was an overall reduction in purchasing items. With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic troubles, individuals stopped making purchases. This caused a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the jobs being kept in the workforce. As individuals lost their jobs, they were unable to pay for items they had bought through payment plans and their items

The first thing I would do differently the next time to be more successful is research a bit more about stocks and the stock markets.I think that I did not know that much about the stock market or how it even works.Maybe if I had a better understanding of it I would have been more successful, so the next time around I will learn more it and the things that surround it. The second thing that I would do differently is pick stocks that would benefits me more.Instead of just picking them because I like the company. I would probably look at their history and see how the stock been doing in the past,and I also think that I would maybe get someone else's opinion before I invest in that stock. So those would be the two things I would do differently

We would like to bring to your attention our strained financial situation. The FAFSA does not accurately depict our family financial situation and the ability to contribute to Zachary’s college expenses.

Once things started to get bad, they got really bad for a lot of families who were given mortgages, who were not properly qualified. There was a major spike in defaults, with