Essay on Mortgage Crisis on Money Supply

It is evident that the housing deficit is just a layer of the many problems we are suffering from during the hard times in our economy. Foreclosure is indeed a horrific word that is haunting homeowners across the US. Because of the situation in the current economy, millions of Americans have been plagued by foreclosing on their homes and are left to find new location for themselves and their families to live.

Along with the stocks and bonds, there was also a high demand from foreigners wanting American goods. This occurred because the deflation from the United Sates made it so appealing to foreigners (Romer). On the other hand, because there was such a low income from Americans it reduced their demand for foreign products (Romer). Unfortunately other countries were trying to maintain an international gold standard in order to continue to meet the monetary contraction that was occurring in the United States (Romer). Sadly, this resulted in the deterioration of output and prices throughout countries all over the world. This downturn of other countries started looking like the one occurring in the United States (Romer). Banking panics along with financial crisis started occurring in other countries around the world, not just in the United Sates (Richardson, September 2007). By forcing countries to deflate, the gold standard reduced the value of bank’s collateral and made them more vulnerable to bank runs (Romer). Due to the overwhelming panics in banks and other financial market disruptions, countries globally experienced a tremendous depression in output and prices (Paul Evans).

The recent mortgage crisis in the US was unprecedented. It led to a massive clampdown of financial institutions, occasioning one of the worst financial melt-downs the US has ever faced (Jaffe, 2008). Quite naturally, it would be necessary to examine the cause of the crisis in order to draft prophylactic measures that would prevent the same financial disaster in the future. This paper will discuss the events that led to the mortgage crisis.

In fact, an article by Fazel Shokoofeh questions the effectiveness of monetary policy “with respect to affecting mortgage rate and thus investment and aggregate demand” (Shokoofeh

The U.S. economy is currently experiencing its worst crisis since the Great Depression. The crisis started in the home mortgage market, especially the market for so-called “subprime” mortgages, and is now spreading beyond subprime to prime mortgages, commercial real estate, corporate junk bonds, and other forms of debt. Total losses of U.S. banks could reach as high as one-third of the total bank capital. The crisis has led to a sharp reduction in bank lending, which in turn is causing a severe recession in the U.S. economy.

The insolvency seen in the Housing Market manifested in the large number of stagnant foreclosures caused a dramatic decline in housing prices, which resulted in many homeowners owing more money on their houses than they are worth. Market-level insolvency is caused by capital flight in a specific market in response to a scare during a decrease in solvency. During the scope of this recession, the initial, progressive decrease in solvency was caused by a negative Net Capital Outflow in conjunction with the cash-vacuum produced by the US Budget Deficit, and the scare was caused primarily by the failure of several significantly-sized corporations and a rapid increase in foreclosures caused by the loss of a large number of jobs.

The Great Recession lasted from December of 2007 until June of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II. During this time, gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, unemployment, and interest rates were all greatly affected. The previously mentioned metrics are used to compare today’s economy to the economy during the Great Recession to see how the United States has rebounded since 2009. Monetary and fiscal policies were also implemented to combat the recession, and their effects determine whether or not the policies have a lasting effect in continuing to help the U.S. economy rebound.

The foreclosure crisis in America has impacted everyone- even those who don’t own homes. Our nation is currently struggling with high unemployment, a relatively illiquid credit market, and a deficit that raises serious concerns about the value of the US Dollar in the not too distant future. With interest rates already at historic lows and the government pursuing an unprecedented policy of quantitative monetary easing, options for government intervention are limited. While there is no simple solution to this problem, I think that we must look at the reasons the housing market went into crisis, and based on that develop a regulatory system that will allow us to avoid another situation like this in the future. If Americans believe

During 2007 through 2010 there existed what we commonly refer to as the subprime mortgage crisis. Through deduction of readings by those considered esteemed in the realm of finance - such as Ben Bernanke - the crisis arose out of an earlier expansion of mortgage credit. This included extending mortgages to borrowers who previously would have had difficulty getting mortgages; this both contributed to and was facilitated by rapidly rising home prices. Pre-subprime mortgages, those looking to buy homes found it difficult to obtain mortgages if they had below average credit histories, provided small down payments or sought high-payment loans without the collateral, income, and/or credit history to match with their mortgage request. Indeed some high-risk families could obtain small-sized mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), otherwise, those facing limited credit options, rented. Because of these processes, home ownership fluctuated around 65 percent, mortgage foreclosure rates were low, and home construction and house prices mainly reflected swings in mortgage interest rates and income.

One of the major issues in our economy is the issue of foreclosure. With our rapidly dropping economy keeping a home is a difficult task for many home owners. Also with the increasing unemployment rates, many people are losing their jobs, and no house payment can be kept up with only an unemployment check. There are many existing ways to decrease the occurrence of foreclosure but also many ideas that have not been heard.

Interest rates began to increase again and so did home ownership costs. The Federal Reserve raised federal funds up to 5.25% for which it stayed for three years after June 2004. No one wanted to purchase a house anymore, home prices began to drop leading to a 40% decline in the U.S Home Construction Index. Home owners began to default on their loans and lenders began to fill for bankruptcy. The result of all these events were the leading cause to complete chaos. Everyone was so focused on the satisfaction of buying homes, selling homes and lower interest rates that it made for a bigger hit to the

Between 2004 and 2006, the Federal Reserve decided to increase the interest rate at which it would lend money to banks. The effects of this led to higher interest rates passed on to consumers by the banks. Though this is only part of the issue, it contributed to the housing bubble collapse. The economic effects of what occurred were not fully realized until August of 2008.When the housing market crashed; it had tremendously adverse effects on the US as well as the World economy (Bajaj).Why did raising interest so slightly affect so many people? The simple answer is that a lot of people were living beyond their means. Banks and subprime lenders were lending money to people who realistically could not pay the loans back. President Calvin Coolidge said, “There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means”.

Every country’s economy is greatly impacted by the beliefs and the attitudes of its citizens; conversely, the action of the people is affected by the country’s economy. In other words, economy of a nation and character of the citizens are correlated. For instance, in the United States, the “American Dream” to own a home had a huge influence on the mortgage crisis in 2008. However, the economy at that time period had been inducing people to buy new home. Likewise, in Greece, the growing trend of corruption and bribery among the people played a major role in shattering its economy. As a consequence of the dreadful economy, Greek people are revolting against their government. While Greece is trying to recover from its devastated state, the overrated American Dream is still a cause of multiple problems in the US. The tendency to use fulfillment of the dream as the measure of success among American people is the one of many reason behind the overall health of people and community and one of the main reason for crisis in 2008. The American Dream of owning a home killed the mediocre reality of middle class people and led to a nightmare of foreclosure and its deadly consequence instead.

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was a set of events that led to the 2008 financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage defaults and foreclosures. This paper seeks to explain the causes of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and how this has led to a generalized credit crisis in other financial sectors that ultimately affects the real economy. In recent decades, financial industry has developed quickly and various financial innovation techniques have been abused widely, which is the main cause of this international financial crisis. In addition, deregulation, loose monetary policies of the Federal Reserve, shadow banking system also play

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