US Housing Bubble: Greater Recession

When the stock market crashed and the worries regarding more economic decline, people from all classes stopped purchasing consumer products. Which lead to reduction in consumer products being made, this caused a reduction in the workforce. As people lost their jobs they were unable to pay for the items that were bought on credit. The unemployment rate rose and cause even less spending to assist to lesson the economic situation.

The recession of 2008 is also called the ‘Great Recession’, said to have begun in December 2007, and took a turn for the worse in September 2008, and it was a severe economic problem expanded globally. This recession affected the world economy, and is said to have been the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. The decline in the Dow Jones this time was -53.8%. Since the official start of the recession in December 2007, and through June 2010 there have been about 2.3 million homes foreclosed in the United States. In 2012, the state with the most foreclosures in January alone was California, with 51,584 houses being repossessed. Unemployment during this collapse was 8.5%, and continued to increase to about 10% as of 2010. People’s reaction to this recession was a huge decrease in spending and borrowing from banks, but an increase in saving.

Firms cut back on purchases of produce goods and the consumers cut back on the purchases of consumer goods (Galbraith 117). This uncertainty mixed with the stock market crash created the biggest recession America has ever seen.

The credit controls were mild but the effect was fairly dramatic. Consumer spending started falling rapidly. The voluntary limitation on total loan expansion had an effect. Banks were responding to loan limitation by rejecting certain types of loans so that they could reserve more of their loan funds for business customers. A sharp recession developed in 1980 because of Volcker’s tight money and Carter’s credit controls.

Both recessions were drenched in high interest rates. In hopes of limiting liquidity, interests rates rose; this only crushed optimism(“What is Economic…”). Who could promise to pay a loan with ridiculous interest rates when a promise to put food on the table is questioned? Also, reduced wages competed with rising inflation. Workers’ paychecks couldn’t keep up with the inflation(“Financial Crisis…”). The only people who had a chance to save the economy were hopeless and unconfident. Consumers that believe the economy is bad do not spend

Similarly, the Great Recession was due to consumer spending cutbacks and a drop in demand for the establishment of new housing. In the two decades previous to 2008, the American growth rate was very high. Their household needs also became very high, which made demand increase. Spending was at a high. However personal income was decreased. The consumers then had to borrow money from the banks. This gave the consumers debt. So, when the house prices rose, banks stopped loaning money to people and the people decreased their spending. This happened because the people were not able to pay the banks back. People also cut back on buying or making new houses, so household demand dropped. Many say that this decrease caused the Great Recession. Housing was one of the main subjects that many believe, caused the Great Recession. “Subprime” mortgage availability and low interest

The uncertainty of the financial industry and the nightmare of the housing bubble caused significant damage to the health of the economy. Businesses were unable to get loans, and employees were laid off. State governments suffered due to the high volume of debt and rising rates in unemployment forcing them to make major cuts to their budgets. All of this had a remarkable impact on the global economic climate as well that kept spreading, and many compared this recession to the Great

As for economic downturn, the lack of regulation and the failures of banks were both caused by the Gulf Wars. The United States government was too focused upon military conflict outside of its borders to pay attention to the loopholes that banks were using to make unwise lending decisions.

The following essay will thoroughly examine the severe economic downturn of 2008, formerly known as the housing bubble collapse. We will mainly focus our discussion on the effects the financial crisis had on Canada and the U.S and examine why both countries were affected differently. Although the collapse of the housing bubble is the most identifiable cause, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint one specific defining moment or event triggering the global financial collapse. There are many factors involved, due to the complex nature of the financial systems across the world, and this paper will delve in the key contributing variables that led to this financial crises.

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”.

The lessons we should have learned should include the fact that we were warned and paid no attention.

When researching past economic recoveries, the housing market is the one to drive the economy out of recession. That being said, this economic recession hasn’t had much of an impact until recently. America’s housing boom had a tremendous influence on the economy for its low prices and flow of new home construction.

The Recession of 2008 was caused by two major faults: the use of subprime lending and changes in banking culture leaning towards self interest within the banking industry.

All of these components manufactured the financial crisis. Right after the crisis, banks were strict on lending to households and businesses. The decline in lending caused prices in these markets to trickle down, which means those that have taken a lot, had to contemplate on the rising prices and had to give up their estates in order to repay their loans. House prices became cheaper and everything burst. This lead banks to panic and cut their lending even more. A downward spiral resulted from all of this, and the economy went into recession.

According to Wikipedia a housing bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets. It is characterized by rapid increases in valuations of real property such as housing until they reach unsustainable levels and then decline. Four years into the housing bubble downturn, much of the country remains hopelessly confused about what happened, why it happened and who is to blame. In my research paper I will try and demonstrate what a housing bubble is, some of the reasons for the bubble, was it preventable, how it kept growing, how it burst and how it has affected our economy.