A Major Systemic Risk Issue On Wall Street

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

In Frontline’s The Meltdown, the causes of the stock market crash of 2008 came into discussion. The topics regarding Bear Stearns, the Lehman Brothers’ and their collapse, and the huge bailout made in results to the market crash. There were great points being made on the mistakes Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke did not view from their perspective, which in turns were the problems that made up the crash.

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense was one of many books to be published in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis of 2007. After seeing the global economy stall in the face of massive losses in word financial markets, many Americans sought to better understand the crisis and its causes. This book, written from the perspective of a financial market insider, provides a glimpse into the world of global finance and also seeks to explain how the players in this world were involved in the crisis. In the words of the author Lawrence McDonald, “My objective in writing A Colossal Failure of Common Sense was twofold. First, to provide … a close-up, inside view of how markets really work…..And, second, to give… as crystal clear an explanation as possible about the real reasons why the legendary Lehman Brothers met with such a swift end”1. By writing about his personal experience at Lehman Brothers and recounting stories from within the famous investment banking firm, Mr. McDonald largely succeeds at his first goal. However, the elements of personal biography and the chronological order of the book make it difficult for the reader to fully appreciate all of the varied causes of the financial crash. I believe that the main value of reading this book is in understanding these causes, with Lehman Brothers acting as a microcosm of the greater financial universe. As such, in this review I have isolated elements from Mr. McDonald’s book which highlight how the crisis

All day and all night, they battled the emergency with each instrument available to them to keep the United States and world economies above water. Working with two U.S. presidents, and under flame from a crabby Congress and an open angered by conduct on Wall Street, the Fed—nearby associates in the Treasury Department—effectively settled a wavering monetary framework. With inventiveness and definitiveness, they kept a financial fall of incomprehensible scale and went ahead to create the strange projects that would resuscitate the U.S. economy and turn into the model for different nations. Rich with detail of the basic leadership prepare in Washington and permanent representations of the real players, The Courage to Act relates and clarifies the most exceedingly bad budgetary emergency and monetary droop in America since the Great Depression, giving an insider 's record of the approach reaction (http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardsalsman/2012/03/06/five-financial-reforms-that-would-prevent-crises-and-promote-prosperity/#).

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 Courage to Act memoir is essential reading for people who wants to know what happened at Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Aug. 5, 2008. It invokes comparisons to the Great Depression and at the same time suggests that Shucks, it was not all that great, was not a depression or anything (Bernanke). But Bernanke is persuasive in arguing that it was pretty damned high i.e. terrible and he and his members at the Fed deserve credit for the fact that it wasn 't a heck of a lot greater. Bernanke pulls back the curtain ornament on his endeavors to keep a mass commercial disappointment, working with two U.S. presidents and utilizing each Fed ability, regardless of how arcane, to keep the U.S. economy above water. His encounters amid the underlying emergency and the Great Recession that took after giving audience members a unique point of view on the American economy since 2006 and his story will uncover surprisingly how the inventiveness and definitiveness of a couple of famous pioneers kept a financial fall of unimaginable scale. The Act provide a means of different points in the banking factor by a central banking system. The Courage to Act explains the worst financial crisis and economic recession in America since the Great Recession, providing an insider 's account of the policy response.

As we go into our research on the financial crisis of 2007, we will try to answer some questions about what actually cause of the failure of our financial system, which almost collapse the dollar. While there are plenty of faults to go around on what cause this crisis, there was never a clear path on how to reverse the demand that was cause by repealing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. Although there has been other regulations and acts pass since the repeal of the Act of 1933, the ability to restore and strength our dollar has been an uphill battle to take control of it. What was known within our economic system to readjust and rebuilt

The Great Recession inflicted abundant harm in the U.S. and global economy; 8.7 million jobs vanished (Center on Budget), 9.3 million Americans lost their homes (Kusisto), and the U.S. GDP fell below what the economy was capable to produce (Center on Budget). The financial crisis was unforeseen by millions and few predicted that the market would enter a recession. Due to the impact that the recession had, several studies have been conducted in order to determine what caused the recession and if it could have been prevented. Government intervention played a key role in the crisis by providing the bailout money that saved those “Too Big to Fail” institutions. Due to the amount of money invested in the bailout and the damage that the financial crisis had on the U.S. population, “Too Big to Fail Banks”, and financial regulation are two of the biggest focuses of the presidential candidates. Politicians might assure voters that change will occur, but is it to late for change to be efficient, are the financial institutions making the same mistakes that led to the financial crisis?

The collapse of Lehman Brothers, a sprawling global bank, in September 2008 almost brought down the world’s financial system. Considered by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great depression of the 1930s. Economist Peter Morici coined the term the “The Great Recession” to describe the period. While the causes are still being debated, many ramifications are clear and include the failure of major corporations, large declines in asset values (some estimates put the drop in the trillions of dollars range), substantial government intervention across the globe, and a significant decline in economic activity. Both regulatory and market based solutions have been proposed or executed to attempt to combat the causes and effects of the crisis.

The unprecedented government intervention during the massive economic crisis of the late 2000’s was met with varied sentiment of economists (Lee, 2009). For example, economist Marci Rossell felt that government intervention was arbitrary and lacked clarity as to which firms would receive government aid (Lee, 2009). She furthered her argument by stating that if the government bailed out homeowners and banks that were borrowing and lending “over their heads,” they were creating a dangerous precedent to set (Lee, 2009, p.40). However, Rossell praised the Obama administration for having a clear grasp on the economic situation and trusted in this administration’s guidance to recover from the economic crisis. Conversely, economist Steven Schwarcz said that though the government bailout in 2008 would cost more than it would have if the government had reacted more swiftly to early signs of recession, these institutions would collapse and fail without government aid (“How Three Economists,” 2008). If these institutions failed, the ripple effect of this failure to the U.S. economy would be irreparable.

The Meltdown is a PBS special on the events of the financial crisis of 2008, in a timeline format, revealing the thinking behind decisions made during the fateful months before the stock market crash in August of that year. Some financial gurus on Wall Street devised a plan to bundle several mortgages together into a group, and then selling that bundle to another group of investors looking to invest in securities. The lender did not need to earn money from the loans he was giving out, he merely gained enough of a profit from the bundling operation that billions were being made on Wall Street from 2005-2008. The problem is that these bundles were risky, and as credit unworthy individuals defaulted on their mortgages, the entire system crumbled into what is now known as the Stock Market Crash of 2008, and have subsequently lived during the Great Recession.

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. With $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt, Lehman 's bankruptcy filing was the largest in history, as its assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants such as WorldCom and Enron. Lehman was the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank at the time of its collapse, with 25,000 employees worldwide. The consequences for the world economy were extreme. Lehman’s ' fall contributed to a loss of confidence in other banks, a worldwide financial crisis and a deep recession in many countries. Lehman 's collapse roiled global financial markets for weeks, given the size of the company and its status as a major player in the U.S. and internationally. Many questioned the U.S. government 's decision to let Lehman fail, as compared to its tacit support for Bear Stearns, which was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) in March 2008. Lehman 's bankruptcy led to more than $46 billion of its market value being wiped out. Its collapse also served as the catalyst for the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America in an emergency deal that was also announced on September 15.

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.

Although the Paulson Plan held off a major financial crisis and attempted to address many of the issues that were the cause of the crisis, improvements could have been made that would have a more lasting positive effect on the American financial system. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the plan needed to achieve at three objectives. It needed to prevent a deep and prolonged recession, achieve that first objective at the lowest possible costs to the U.S. taxpayer, and it should not bail out the existing investors. As stated in the article, “the Treasury plan addresses only the first objective, and only indirectly.” While the article gave many suggestions for improving the plan, perhaps the most useful was the recommendation to require all regulated financial institutions to raise 2% of their assets in additional capital to preserve the stability of the financial system. This mandate should ensure that no individual bank sends an adverse signal to the market, which should cause investors to not lose confidence in the banks.

The move came after Bear Stearns was bleeding cash after word spread about the company’s crumbling position. European banks and other brokerage clients were pulling their investments and loans with Bear Stearns rapidly—and the company was losing billions in a week. In a swift move, the CEO of Bear Stearns, Alan Schwartz, was connected with the FED Chairman Ben Bernake, who agreed to loan money to JPMorgan if the financier company took over the quickly deteriorating Bear Stearns. It is argued that the FED was right in doing so as this move not save one of the largest American investment banks thus preventing a crushing blow to the US economy.