preview

The Financial Crisis Of 2008 : Deregulation And Corruption

Better Essays

The Financial Crisis of 2008: Deregulation & Corruption 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. Discussion Deregulation is believed to be one of the major factors that led to the 2008 Financial Crisis. Deregulation refers to the reduction of governmental influence in an industry in order to create more competition (“Deregulation”, 2015). The reduction in government influence creates a more competitive market that

Get Access