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Financial Crisis

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The Global Financial Crisis

Introduction

The global financial crisis which started in early 2007 has proven to be perhaps the great financial catastrophe in history. Although it traces its roots back to the starting of the millennia, the subsequent meltdown was most gruesome over the past 3 years. What began as a crisis of the sub-prime mortgage market in the United States quickly transcended national borders and developed into a upheaval of epic proportions. What ensued was a systematic debacle of stock exchanges, investment banking, derivatives etc. all financial markets ranging from equity, currency, real estate, futures etc.
In order to fully understand the devastation caused by this dilemma, we have to take focus on the core issues and identify the stream of events as they occurred and how they subsequently collapsed global financial markets.
Housing Bubble Burst

The global financial crisis began through the US sub-prime mortgage market. The past two decades leading up to the year 2005 had experienced phenomenal growth in terms of increases in housing prices. There was an abundance of capital flowing into the country and this translated into excess liquidity available for banks to lend out. The Sub-Prime Mortgage Market refers to a market where people with bad credit history can obtain house loans at relatively better rates. It doesn’t imply that the interest rates are low, but rather they don’t have to go through the rigors they would face due to their poor credit rating. Since the US is the largest consumption economy in the world, which implies the use of credit facilities, banks started encouraging consumers to avail these easy loans. The housing bubble experienced its pinnacle in 2005-06, which was the main indicator that the bubble would collapse in a similar manner to the Dot Com era. Default rates on sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages

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