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Great Recession Research Paper

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The Great Recession officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II. Some people blame it on the greed of the Wall Street bankers and others on subprime mortgage lenders. It began with the bursting of an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble. The subsequent loss of wealth prompted sharp reductions in consumer spending. This loss of consumption, joined with the financial market mayhem, also led to a collapse in investment banking. Massive job loss followed the same trend as the dwindling consumer spending and business investment. In 2008 and 2009, the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 million occupations - the most considerable business contraction of any recession since the Great Depression. The Great Recession of 2008 was sparked by the housing crisis and Americans today still struggle with its effects.
Home builders responded to a false price signal in the economy - …show more content…

The Federal Reserve had began lowering interest rates from 6.5% in the late 2000, all the way down to 1% in November of 2003 and kept it there until June of 2004. These artificially low interest rates encouraged consumers to buy houses and builders to produce more houses. However, the low interest rate was not an accurate reflection of the true demand for houses in the marketplace. At the same time, Congress amended the Community Reinvestment Act, encouraging banks to offer mortgages to lower income borrowers who would ordinarily not qualify for a loan. In addition, the Federal Government required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the now two infamous government sponsored lenders, to provide over half their mortgages to low-income buyers, also known as subprime mortgages. Essentially, this meant that banks and other mortgages lenders were told to relax their lending standards, and provide mortgages to people who

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