The 2008 Crash
Ok NOW we can talk about THAT housing crash. The 2008 crash is not just a recent memory but one that is still taking a heavy toll on the world economy to this day. Although the poster boy for economic crashes still remains our previous entry of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the 2008 financial crisis was of the same magnitude, if not more.
In a similar vein to the 80’s housing crash, this one was precipitated by an artificially-inflated housing market and much like with 1929, no one ever dreamed the good times wouldn’t just keep on rolling. This event would expose the rampant greed and miss management within the financial and banking sector and cause trillions of dollars to disappear from the global economy overnight.
Unlike the crash of the 80’s. 2008’s housing market was so intrinsically linked to the global economy that when it did fall it caused an almost instantaneous global recession, set off civil unrest and fed a growing mistrust and resentment in institutions, elites and politicians. The giving out of questionable credit to anyone by unscrupulous individuals and institutions, regardless of the customers reliability, had their eyes on profit, commissions and bonuses, not the increasingly fragile market.
Many hard working Americans found themselves out on the street, while the people and institutes responsible for the mess just themselves a massive bail out check and no one goes to jail. Apart from the obvious economic effect the 2008 financial crisis had on the world, another lasting effect has been that for the first time, many citizens of the world got to see just how rotten to the core some of our biggest institutions really came be.
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