financial crisis essay

155 Financial Crisis Essays & Examples

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A financial crisis means massive depreciation of financial assets. It usually happens in the forms of banking, currency, and debt crises. Though the issue is studied well, financial crises still occur in various parts of the world.

In your finance crisis essay, you might want to focus on financial management in turbulent periods. Another idea is to discuss what it takes to survive a global financial crisis. One more option is to compare various types of financial crises. Whether you are assigned an argumentative essay, analytical paper, or research proposal, this article will be helpful. Here we’ve collected financial crisis research paper topics, current essay titles, writing tips, and financial crisis essay samples.

• The financial system and its components
• The role of investors in the financial system
• Personal, corporate, and public finance
• Financial risk management
• Quantitative finance and financial engineering
• Behavioral finance: the psychology of investors
• Early history of finance
• History and development of money
• Experimental finance and its goals
• Mathematical modeling in financial markets analysis
• 2008 Financial Crisis in Dubai In order to address the collapse in the real estate market observed in Dubai in 2008, the Emirate’s authorities focused on elaborating stricter regulations on developers of the housing projects and on the buyers. 26 […]
• Impact of World Financial Crisis on the UAE Economy The decline in economic growth was reflected in the significant reduction in the country’s GDP. However, the profitability and growth of the sector reduced substantially in 2009 due to the following factors.
• Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 in ‘The Big Short’ Movie Michael predicted that it would devaluate mortgage bonds and, therefore, decided to short the housing market, that is, to bet on the market crash.
• General Electric and the Financial Crisis of 2008 Although GE’s success is often attributed to the significant amount of financial assets that the company has, it owes its survival through the 2008 crisis to the careful and well-thought-out plan of investing in the […]
• Apple and Hewlett Packard During 2008 Financial Crisis Though the general demand has not reached the level it was before the crisis, many companies have taken advantage of the rising demand and have made tremendous sales. However, the company has increased its spending […]
• British Airways Performance and Global Financial Crisis This paper analyzes the performance of British Airways’ leadership in the wake of the global financial crisis. BA CityFlyer, which is a subsidiary of the British Airways, dominates operations in the London municipality airport.
• The global financial crisis of 2008 The magnitude and the level of disruption of the global economies have led to speculation of various causes that has contributed to its occurrence.
• The Shadow Banking System: Financial Crisis Source The so-called shadow banking system, comprised of numerous institutions operating outside the regulated banking system, has undoubtedly contributed greatly to the emergence of the latest global financial crisis.
• Social Distancing, Financial Crisis and Mental Health The lockdown leads to the inability of people to go to the hospital for mental health consultation and treatment due to the anti-COVID measures. It is possible to talk about the spread of mental health […]
• Aspects of the 2008 Financial Crisis According to Eisinger, none of the participants in the story in the film had any idea of the coming crisis. One of the connections between the film and the textbook is that of corporate social […]
• Essential Points From the Financial Crisis The first important point on slide 10 is the failure to penalize the originator for passing the mortgage to the provider.
• Argentina and Russia’s Financial Crisis Investors’ loss of faith in the Russian economy caused them to sell their Russian holdings, lowering the value of the Russian rouble and raising fears of a financial crisis.
• Ethical Questions in the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis What followed was an investigation of the genesis of the crisis, which revealed that catastrophic failure in oversight, the systemic weakening of usury laws, and outright thuggery by banks and mortgage salespeople were the major […]
• The 2008 Financial Crisis and Housing Policies Under the State Department of Housing and Urban Development, the government introduced the Section 8 Voucher. The function of this voucher was to meet the gap between what the renters would get and the actual […]
• 2008 Financial Crisis from a Neoliberal Perspective While such a position seems reasonable, the overall adherence of the financial system, including accounting and auditing, contributed to the crisis due to the unbearable level of loans and fictitious assets dominating the business.
• Corporate Social Capital During Financial Crisis The credit crisis related to the mortgage problem in 2008 has been one of the massive financial issues of the world since the times of the Great Depression.
• 2008 Global Financial Crisis in Andrew Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail” The book Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis and Themselves, written by Andrew Ross Sorkin, explores the events and consequences […]
• Financial Crisis in Greece It is doubtless that the value of money is essential in determining a number of factors like the stability of the economy and inflation.
• The Euro Financial Crisis Causes and Outcomes The involvement of the central banks of is an attempt to demonstrate that all the central bankers are collaborating. The Euro crisis has exarcebated the currency swap process as it is now more expensive to […]
• The 2007 Financial Crisis: Development of the Prices of Shares, Corporate Bonds and Loans The crippling of the financial system in the US and the UK in the period beginning late 2007 was a product of crippling loans.
• Challenges Facing College Sports After Financial Crisis When the housing bubble caused financial depression in the national economy, colleges and universities were some of the most affected institutions, especially because the state and federal legislatures were forced to cut funding, the major […]
• How Money Market Mutual Funds Contributed to the 2008 Financial Crisis While how the prices of shares fell below the set $1 per share was a complex process, it became one of the greatest systemic risks posed by the MMMF to the investors and the economy […]
• How Quantitative Models Contribute to the Financial Crisis The motivation behind this study lies in the desire to understand why and how the economies of many countries around the world, especially in the Middle East, have been shaken to the core by the […]
• Causes and Solutions of the 2008 Financial Crisis The current essay describes the causes of the Financial Crisis of 2008 and the solutions suggested by the Keynesian school of thought.
• South Africa’s Response to Global Financial Crisis Desire to the achieve objective that duly fulfils the needs of an individual while being disadvantageous to the majority of individuals led to the crisis.
• Manifestations of the Financial Crisis in Greece The bank which is also affected by the crisis will also exaggerate the cost of this operation and this leads to a loss on my side.
• Global Financial Crisis Impact on Multi-Nationals The credit crisis was linked to the sub-prime mortgage business. So as to encourage lending, the interest rates were also lowered credibly.
• Qantas’ Actions in the Financial Crisis Context The actions taken by Qantas in reducing their costs can be said to be influenced by the global financial crisis, where the decline of the number of passengers in September 2009 was 0.
• Prospects for Chindia After 2008 Global Financial Crisis According to the Australian business press, the recent economic growth achieved was a result of the relationship between itself and the two countries i.e. However, China experienced a hitch on its international markets especially in […]
• The Global Financial Crisis and Its Impact on Australia The collapse of key institutions in the US and other economies in the world has people scurrying back to the drawing board in a bid to rethink economic policy and regulation strategies.
• The Investment Industry in Kuwait Today (During Financial Crisis) One of the confessions was that the investment authority of Kuwait otherwise known as would not be in a position to provide financial support that would assist in the restoration of confidence that was already […]
• The Financial Crisis on the UK Economy Analyze the causes and the impact of the current financial crisis on the UK economy. Due to the above-trend growth in 2006 and 2007, activity needs to be slow.
• Financial Crisis Management in the United Nations A crisis can be defined as the perception of an abnormal situation that is beyond the capability of the business and its scope to deal with.
• Lehman Brothers and the 2008 Financial Crisis As a result, when the management of the bank expected assistance from other firms and the Bank of America, it did not receive the help it needed.
• Global Financial Crisis and Real Estate Issues The central point of the argument is that the real estate market in the US and the policy called “trailer park lending” was the main reason for the worldwide economic crisis.
• 2008 Global Financial Crisis: Crises of Capitalism? Although I had an idea of the possible catalysts of the 2008 global financial meltdown before watching the video, Harvey presented a clear report of the events that occurred before the crisis and put them […]
• Corporate Government During the World Financial Crisis The chairman is the leader of the board of directors while the CEO is the person who oversees the day to day activities of the company; each of them performs a distinct and critical role […]
• Corporate Governance During the Global Financial Crisis The chairman of the board of directors is the leader of both the board and the company whereas the CEO is the person who oversees the day-to-day activities of the company.
• Nucor Corporation After Financial Crisis in the US However, in 2009, the company made the largest loss in its history of $299 million; the loss was the first annual loss since 1966. The depreciated purchasing power parity of the people in 2009 is […]
• Global Financial Crisis and Its Ethical Causes The reason for this is simple the analysis of what had brought about this particular financial crisis and what accounted for the subtleties of its extrication points out to an undeniable fact that it was […]
• Economic Shocks and Financial Crisis in Kuwait At the year 2008, the intensity of the crisis was at the peak, causing oil prices which led to a decrease in production and drop in GDP of Kuwait.
• Financial Crisis of 2008 Economics specialists have argued that the global financial crisis of 2008 was caused by a combination of factors, including the abundance of cheap credits in the macroeconomic environment as well as counterproductive decision-making in governments […]
• Banking Instability During the Global Financial Crisis Though the combination of aspects that resulted in the banking instability in the course of the global financial crisis had never been witnessed previously, the shift from extreme risk-taking to fiscal chaos was a common […]
• Rotana Company’s Financial Crisis and Culture This statement can be seen as being true to the values of the company and how it addressed the issues caused by the 2008 financial crisis.
• British and Dutch Banks After 2008 Financial Crisis Many countries utilised the opportunity of the crisis to work on improving corporate governance and leadership to avoid similar crises in the future.
• The Global Financial Crisis and Its Impacts In addition, a case of a company is studied to evaluate the impact of GFC on a particular firm, and consider the capability of the firm to survive the crisis.
• The Global Financial Crisis and Its Effect The latest global financial crisis managed to restart a debate on the value of both the stakeholder as well as shareholder theories. This led to the managers being more attentive to the prices of the […]
• Australian Banks in the Global Financial Crisis To understand how Australian banks managed the GFC, it is essential to pay attention to the very structure of its banking.
• Financial Crisis and Great Recession Causality The financial crisis is typically viewed as a primary factor behind the development of the Great Recession. Instead, the financial crisis of 2008 can be deemed a prerequisite of the Great Recession as well as […]
• Financial Crisis in Ferguson’s “The Ascent of Money” By Ferguson, the main purpose of the historian is to relieve humanity from the financial illusions on the examples of the past.
• Global Financial Crisis and Regulatory Responses In the aftermath of the crisis, the government through the Federal Reserve embarked on a mission to restore these financial institutions to their original position.
• Reasons and Consistency of the Financial Crisis 2007-2008 The financial crisis that occurred in 2007-2008 is frequently defined as one of the major financial events at the beginning of the 2000s.
• Financial Crisis and Its Impact on UAE Construction The determination of this research is to evaluate the enactment of construction corporations in the United Arab Emirates for the period of the pre and post worldwide eras of financial disaster, which is from 2006 […]
• 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and Its Consequences Beja explores the impacts the crisis had on these countries and the outcomes that occurred years after the end of the crisis.
• American Financial Crisis and Its Prevention The interviewee brings about the idea of bureaucracy and political aspects that contributed to the problem, highlighting the corruption and ineffectiveness in the government when bailing out the institutions.
• West Midlands Designers and Architects Ltd: Financial Crisis The second option, which is by merit, will favor the company’s future and also acceptable by a number of the current employees.
• Financial Crisis of 2008 and Consumer Behavior Although the main cause of the global financial crisis that began in 2007 was the bursting of the housing bubble, economists largely agree that the ensuing recession was the outcome of a combination of several […]
• Financial Crisis of 2007-2008: Laws and Policies Nevertheless, one should not assume that the absence of legal safeguards is the only factor that led to this crisis since it is necessary to consider the development of the economy and lack of internal […]
• Financial Crisis in Greece: Origin and Aspects This essay seeks to establish the nature and origin of the crisis, Greece’s advantages and disadvantages in the Eurozone, and Greece’s fiscal policy.
• Austerity Measures after of the World Financial Crisis That is why it becomes obvious that there is a great need in some austerity measures whose main aim is to overcome the results of the world financial crisis and guarantee the stability of the […]
• US Financial Crisis Hit and Its Economy Effect He is an economist and runs a column in the Atlantic magazine on financial matters in the U.S. The article is by Lee Don, a columnist, and journalist in the U.
• The 2008 Financial Crisis In September 2008, the two giant mortgage companies faced the danger of bankruptcy as they had guaranteed close to half of the total mortgages in the US.
• Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the World The recent global financial crisis happened between the years 2007 and 2008 that was a serious threat to the financial markets in the United States and the rest of the world.
• Effects of Hedge Funds on the Global Financial Crisis The article titled “Do not Blame Hedge Funds for Financial Crisis, Study Says,” in 19th September 2012 issue of the The Wall Street Journal, attempts to remove the hedge fund from blame in the global […]
• Role of International Financial Institutions in 2008 Financial Crisis Even more disappointing is the fact that the financial regulatory standards that were in place were unable to anticipate and therefore avert the ramifications of the financial crisis before it happened as should have been […]
• Global Financial Crisis: Corruption and Transparency Due to the large number of the emerging markets, the global financial regulators lacked a proper mechanism to handle the situation.
• Managing Financial Crises In this line, the financial institutions would have distributed the risk to all the stakeholders. The involvement of many players in the management systems of banks makes it out rightly difficult to blame banks for […]
• ‘What Went Wrong? An Initial Inquiry into the Causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis’ Additionally, failures at the managerial group also resulted in the crash as it led to a re evaluation of the cost of the agencies by the investors.
• Training and Skills Development Programs vs. the Global Financial Crisis The Level of education influences the rate of unemployment in an economy. The increase in gross domestic products is attributed to levels of education and employment.
• The Worst of the Global Financial Crisis Is Still To Come Therefore, considering the numerous flaws that exist in the global economic system and the fact that, most governments have deviated from addressing the real causes of the global financial crisis; hence, formulate strategies of avoiding […]
• The Financial Crisis Impacts on East Asian States The policy response to the currency crisis later led to a crisis in the financial institutions. The financial crisis was similar to the crisis that hit Mexico in 1995 and the difference was only on […]
• States regulatory response to the current financial crisis Having been cited by the International Monetary Fund as the leading contributor towards the world economy in 2007, the onset of the financial crisis meant economic disaster to the state.
• Financial Risk Management: Based on the 2008 Global Financial Crisis While it is believed that the U.S.subprime mortgage market might have prompted the occurrence of the global financial crisis, the primary cause of the crisis was founded on the flawed institutional practices and the instability […]
• Carolina Panthers Financial Crisis While it was expected that the team could lose its operating income because of the losses it went through last season, the team emerged as one of the teams that profited greatly in the 2010/2011 […]
• EU Financial Crisis: Risk Management Failures This is for example over- dependence on: the capability of managers to create returns.the merits of financial innovation in efficiently spreading returns and risks in the market, the sufficiency of data and models used for […]
• Public Discourse under the Financial Crisis in the U.S and Canada The number of people that lost their jobs, the number of companies that ran into bankruptcy and dwindled in self-destruction through foreclosures and closures, the amount of money that was pumped into the economy by […]
• Impacts of Financial crisis on Bahrain Impacts of financial crisis on the country’s economy have accelerated debate within the mainstream of economics and many market analysts have devised economic stimulus plan to confront the crisis.
• Effect of Global financial crisis on the Gulf Countries The financial crisis which hit the US in the late months of the year 2007 have over time spread to almost all other countries in the world.
• Cultural Change at Texaco and Financial Crisis The most important and influential challenge was the opportunity to solve the questions of exclusion and discrimination of the minorities and women from the company’s workforce in such high status posts like management.
• After the 2007-2010 Financial Crisis: Across the Chaos and Destruction to the Universal Order Because of the half-baked decisions concerning the integration in the Eurozone had been taken, the Great Britain had to sign the agreement with Brussels concerning the further economical steps, which is likely to drive to […]
• Global Financial Crisis Problems This paper discusses the problem created by the global financial crisis and assesses the viability of the courses of actions taken to counter the problem.
• Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2010 In particular, it has shown that many financial institutions are too much dependent on one another, and the collapse of one organization can result in the collapse of the entire system.
• Eurozone Financial Crisis Henceforth, an analysis is drawn of the causes of crisis in the Eurozone. In addition, the effect of this Eurozone crisis did spread to other countries.
• East Asian Financial Crisis Analysts have argued that the inherent problem with the approach in the region, especially in Japan, was primarily due to much involvement of the government in guiding the free economy.
• The Financial Crisis Causes: Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection The consequences were similar in most parts of the world with the main indicators being debt crises, high unemployment rates, a reduction in the number of home ownership facilities and the demand for the same, […]
• East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98 However, the quick actives responses by the states in the region helped in the quick aversion of the crisis and its impacts on the region’s economy.
• American Financial Crisis It discussed the underlying causes of the crisis and the impact it has had on the economy of the United States.
• Short-term decisions lead to the emergence of the global financial crisis Over the years, since the great depression in the 1930’s, the role of management seems to have diverted significantly from expectations as illustrated by the global financial crisis.
• Spain’s Financial Crisis The disproportionate growth in the real estate sector, coupled with the expansion of credit needed to finance it, is at the basis of the economic imbalances.
• Global Financial Crisis Causes and Impacts After a number of years since the first occurrence of the crisis, it is still not possible to explain fully the impact of the global financial crisis because the economic emergency keeps on hindering and […]
• Minsky’s Economic volatility theory as an evaluation of Financial Crisis The modern Marxist, FSA, and organizational Keynesian perspectives associate the causes of the financial slow down with the implementation of the liberal development framework in 1970s when the “Accord of Detroit” development framework was ditched.
• The Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 The two key sectors that take the blame for the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 are the financial sector and the real estate industry.
• Global Financial Crisis Initially, the collapse of AIG, the under-performance of Fallie Mac and Fannie Mac and the merging of the Bank of America and the Merrill Lynch were the start point of the financial problems in the […]
• Global Financial Crisis of the United States Mortgage Industry The deterioration of economies called for government to take fast and immediate measures to rescue their nations; the United Nations for instance had to make policies that protected its local industry from the adverse effects […]
• What Caused the 2008 Financial Crisis in the USA? The opposite trends in the cost of mortgage credit and the housing prices also made the home owners participate more in the market since the risk of default was much lower.
• The Global Financial Crisis and Capitalism for the Elite Rich This Ideology adopted by many if not all of the western nations upholds the private ownership of business and institutions and the owners of these entities are allowed to spread out as much as they […]
• The UK Banking Practice That Led to Financial Crisis Crisis of the magnitude that was experienced is a real threat to the economy of any country and it is imperative for people to learn as much as they can to avoid the circumstance that […]
• The effect of global financial crisis on Saudi Arabian economy The countries stability of the banking sector was also seen in the change in banking activities over the period of global financial crisis, the country recorded the worst banking growth rate in the years between […]
• The effect of the global financial crisis on political and financial risks The negative effects of the global financial crisis have been felt in most parts of the world i.e.in the advanced countries, the emerging markets and in the developing world.
• Global Trade During the Financial Crisis (from 2006 to 2010) Each of the major trade regions of the world seemed to concentrate more on a given branch of trade and give their outputs to the rest of the world.
• Global Financial Crisis Impact on Australian and World Economies After affecting the banking and credit sectors in the US, the global crisis slowly crept to other countries and in the process became a world crisis.
• International Finance. Main Causes of Recent Financial Crisis One of the specific factors that can be attributed to the recent international financial crisis was the loss on housing mortgage loans due to the decline of mortgage prices in the market.
• The 2008 global financial crisis Soros asserts that whereas the U.S.subprime mortgage market is believed to have prompted the current financial crisis, the basis of the crisis derived from the flawed practices and institutions of the current financial system.
• Benefits of the Old Fashioned Business Models in the light of Global financial Crisis The purpose of this essay is to establish the benefits and drawbacks of old fashioned business models in the light of global financial crisis with reference to Airdrie bank of Lanarkshire in the UK.
• The Recent Financial Crisis The financial crisis has been considered by most economists to be the worst crisis since the Great Depression as it contributed to the failure of major financial institutions in the U.S.and the decline of consumer […]
• Turkey’s 2000-2001 Financial Crisis The first crisis began at the early 90’s while the second began at the beginning of the 21st century. This led to the collapse of the exchange rate and the beginning of the country’s second […]
• The 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis This growth was associated with “inflow of investments, improvements in technology, increases in education, a ready supply of labor as people moved from the countryside to the cities to work in factories, and reduced restrictions […]
• Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the Healthcare Industry The global financial crisis threatened to lead to the total breakdown of the global economy. The global financial crisis reduced the funding of that the healthcare facilities received from the government.
• Changes in Financial Markets and it impact on Recent Financial Crisis Due to the above reason, this study seeks to examine the reasons behind the changes in financial markets during the last 30 years and the role of these changes in the recent financial crisis.
• Argentina’s Financial Crisis: A Critical Review of Causes and Effects The unprecedented expansion in the country’s markets and economy at large was attributed to the rise in agricultural exports. The country’s economy was heading in the right direction following the introduction of the convertibility system.
• Cause of the Financial Crisis The reason for this is quite apparent it was namely the Democrats’ preoccupation with ‘combating poverty’ that resulted in passing of the infamous Community Reinvestment Act and in reinforcing its provisions through the course of […]
• Disadvantages of Developed Country (America) When 2008 Financial Crisis However, the scholars do not singly use this as a reason of terming a country as being developed but also adds on to the fact that people in that country should be having the freedom […]
• The Global Financial Crisis Every entity is faced with the inevitable reality of making financial decisions in the following departments; investment for instance where to open shop, dividends for example whether or not to pay and when, working capital […]
• Theories on Causes of Financial Crisis A financial system shock disrupted the situation and the prices of the houses fell and many people could not pay their loans.
• Wesfarmers Limited and the Global Financial Crisis In order to put into perspective the effect of the GFC, we shall study the profitability of the firm from 2007 to 2010.
• Regulation in the Financial Crisis 2008 While numerous claims have been put forth to explain the causes of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, there is almost a universal agreement that the major causes of the financial crisis was the combination of a […]
• The 2008 Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences Foster and Magdoff Perspective of 2008 Financial Crisis Foster and Magdoff theory that attempts to explain the 2008 financial crisis attributes it to broader factors of monopoly finance capitalism which is a function of a […]
• Ethical Aspects of the Financial Crisis Yet, they would agree that to some degree, the origins of the financial crisis can be traced to the immoral behavior of some individuals who attempted to maximize their own benefits of at the expense […]
• Is Globalization the Main Culprit for the 2008 Global Financial Crisis? Globalization has eroded the powers and the sovereignty of the state, the role of the state to regulate and to steer forward the economy has been largely ignored at the expense of the market, these […]
• The Importance of Ethics in Business in Light of the Recent Global Financial Crisis The lack of concern for the overall good of the society stemmed from the increase in equity-based compensation to top executives which resulted in the declaration that “the paramount duty of management and board is […]
• What Was the Biggest Financial Crisis?
• Did Financial Crisis Alter the Level of Competition in the EMU Banks?
• What Is the Effect of Financial Crisis?
• What Are the Three Stages of Financial Crisis?
• Did Firms Manage Earnings More Aggressively during the Financial Crisis?
• What Causes a Financial Crisis?
• Did the Recent Housing Boom Signal the Global Financial Crisis?
• How Can We Solve Financial Crisis?
• What Is Another Word for Financial Crisis?
• What Is the First Stage in Financial Crisis?
• Can the Government Take Money from Your Bank Account in a Financial Crisis?
• What Was the Worst Financial Crisis in History?
• What Caused the Global Financial Crisis?
• Did the Financial Crisis Affect the Market Valuation of Large Systemic U.S. Banks?
• What Is the Impact of the Global Financial Crisis?
• What Happened in the 2008 Financial Crisis?
• How Did the Financial Crisis Started?
• Did Family Firms Perform Better During the Financial Crisis?
• Did Investors Herd During the Financial Crisis?
• Did Relational Capital Matter during the Financial Crisis?
• Did the Asian Financial Crisis Scare Foreign Investors Out of Japan?
• Did the Financial Crisis in Japan Affect Household Welfare Seriously?
• Did the Global Financial Crisis Alter the Oil–Gasoline Price Relationship?
• Was the 2008 Financial Crisis Caused by Lack of Ethics?
• Was the Financial Crisis Caused by Bankers or Government?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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The Great Recession and Its Aftermath

The period known as the Great Moderation came to an end when the decade-long expansion in US housing market activity peaked in 2006 and residential construction began declining. In 2007, losses on mortgage-related financial assets began to cause strains in global financial markets, and in December 2007 the US economy entered a recession. That year several large financial firms experienced financial distress , and many financial markets experienced significant turbulence. In response, the Federal Reserve provided liquidity and support through a  range of programs  motivated by a desire to improve the functioning of financial markets and institutions, and thereby limit the harm to the US economy. 1    Nonetheless, in the fall of 2008, the economic contraction worsened, ultimately becoming deep enough and protracted enough to acquire the label “the  Great Recession ." While the US economy bottomed out in the middle of 2009, the recovery in the years immediately following was by some measures unusually slow. The Federal Reserve has provided unprecedented monetary accommodation in response to the severity of the contraction and the gradual pace of the ensuing recovery.  In addition, the financial crisis led to a range of major reforms in banking and financial regulation, congressional legislation that significantly affected the Federal Reserve.

Rise and Fall of the Housing Market

The recession and crisis followed an extended period of expansion in US housing construction, home prices, and housing credit. This expansion began in the 1990s and continued unabated through the 2001 recession, accelerating in the mid-2000s. Average home prices in the United States more than doubled between 1998 and 2006, the sharpest increase recorded in US history, and even larger gains were recorded in some regions. Home ownership in this period rose from 64 percent in 1994 to 69 percent in 2005, and residential investment grew from about 4.5 percent of US gross domestic product to about 6.5 percent over the same period. Roughly 40 percent of net private sector job creation between 2001 and 2005 was accounted for by employment in housing-related sectors.

The expansion in the housing sector was accompanied by an expansion in home mortgage borrowing by US households. Mortgage debt of US households rose from 61 percent of GDP in 1998 to 97 percent in 2006. A number of factors appear to have contributed to the growth in home mortgage debt. In the period after the 2001 recession, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) maintained a low federal funds rate, and some observers have suggested that by keeping interest rates low for a “prolonged period” and by only increasing them at a “measured pace” after 2004, the Federal Reserve contributed to the expansion in housing market activity (Taylor 2007).  However, other analysts have suggested that such factors can only account for a small portion of the increase in housing activity (Bernanke 2010).  Moreover, the historically low level of interest rates may have been due, in part, to large accumulations of savings in some emerging market economies, which acted to depress interest rates globally (Bernanke 2005). Others point to the growth of the market for mortgage-backed securities as contributing to the increase in borrowing. Historically, it was difficult for borrowers to obtain mortgages if they were perceived as a poor credit risk, perhaps because of a below-average credit history or the inability to provide a large down payment. But during the early and mid-2000s, high-risk, or “subprime,” mortgages were offered by lenders who repackaged these loans into securities. The result was a large  expansion in access to housing credit , helping to fuel the subsequent increase in demand that bid up home prices nationwide.

Effects on the Financial Sector

After home prices peaked in the beginning of 2007, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index, the extent to which prices might eventually fall became a significant question for the pricing of mortgage-related securities because large declines in home prices were viewed as likely to lead to an increase in mortgage defaults and higher losses to holders of such securities. Large, nationwide declines in home prices had been relatively rare in the US historical data, but the run-up in home prices also had been unprecedented in its scale and scope. Ultimately, home prices fell by over a fifth on average across the nation from the first quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2011. This decline in home prices helped to spark the financial crisis of 2007-08, as financial market participants faced considerable uncertainty about the incidence of losses on mortgage-related assets. In August 2007, pressures emerged in certain financial markets, particularly the market for asset-backed commercial paper, as money market investors became wary of exposures to subprime mortgages (Covitz, Liang, and Suarez 2009). In the spring of 2008, the investment bank Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorgan Chase with the assistance of the Federal Reserve. In September, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, and the next day the  Federal Reserve provided support to AIG , a large insurance and financial services company. Citigroup and Bank of America sought support from the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The Fed’s support to specific financial institutions was not the only expansion of central bank credit in response to the crisis. The Fed also introduced a number of  new lending programs  that provided liquidity to support a range of financial institutions and markets. These included a credit facility for “primary dealers,” the broker-dealers that serve as counterparties for the Fed’s open market operations, as well as lending programs designed to provide liquidity to money market mutual funds and the commercial paper market.  Also introduced, in cooperation with the US Department of the Treasury, was the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), which was designed to ease credit conditions for households and businesses by extending credit to US holders of high-quality asset-backed securities.

Initially, the expansion of Federal Reserve credit was financed by reducing the Federal Reserve’s holdings of Treasury securities, in order to avoid an increase in bank reserves that would drive the federal funds rate below its target as banks sought to lend out their excess reserves. But in October 2008, the Federal Reserve gained the authority to pay banks interest on their excess reserves. This gave banks an incentive to hold onto their reserves rather than lending them out, thus mitigating the need for the Federal Reserve to offset its expanded lending with reductions in other assets. 2

Effects on the Broader Economy

The housing sector led not only the financial crisis, but also the downturn in broader economic activity. Residential investment peaked in 2006, as did employment in residential construction. The overall economy peaked in December 2007, the month the National Bureau of Economic Research recognizes as the beginning of the recession. The decline in overall economic activity was modest at first, but it steepened sharply in the fall of 2008 as stresses in financial markets reached their climax. From peak to trough, US gross domestic product fell by 4.3 percent, making this the deepest recession since World War II. It was also the longest, lasting eighteen months. The unemployment rate more than doubled, from less than 5 percent to 10 percent. 

In response to weakening economic conditions, the FOMC lowered its target for the federal funds rate from 4.5 percent at the end of 2007 to 2 percent at the beginning of September 2008. As the financial crisis and the economic contraction intensified in the fall of 2008, the FOMC accelerated its interest rate cuts, taking the rate to its effective floor – a target range of 0 to 25 basis points – by the end of the year. In November 2008, the Federal Reserve also initiated the first in a series of large-scale asset purchase (LSAP) programs, buying mortgage-backed securities and longer-term Treasury securities. These purchases were intended to put downward pressure on long-term interest rates and improve financial conditions more broadly, thereby supporting economic activity (Bernanke 2012).

The recession ended in June 2009, but economic weakness persisted. Economic growth was only moderate – averaging about 2 percent in the first four years of the recovery – and the unemployment rate, particularly the rate of long-term unemployment, remained at historically elevated levels. In the face of this prolonged weakness, the Federal Reserve maintained an exceptionally low level for the federal funds rate target and sought new ways to provide additional monetary accommodation. These included additional LSAP programs, known more popularly as quantitative easing, or QE. The FOMC also began communicating its intentions for future policy settings more explicitly in its public statements, particularly the circumstances under which exceptionally low interest rates were likely to be appropriate. For example, in December 2012, the committee stated that it anticipates that exceptionally low interest rates would likely remain appropriate at least as long as the unemployment rate was above a threshold value of 6.5 percent and inflation was expected to be no more than a half percentage point above the committee’s 2 percent longer-run goal. This strategy, known as “forward guidance,” was intended to convince the public that rates would stay low at least until certain economic conditions were met, thereby putting downward pressure on longer-term interest rates.

Effects on Financial Regulation

When the financial market turmoil had subsided, attention naturally turned to reforms to the financial sector and its supervision and regulation, motivated by a desire to avoid similar events in the future. A number of measures have been proposed or put in place to reduce the risk of financial distress. For traditional banks, there are significant increases in the amount of required capital overall, with larger increases for so-called “systemically important” institutions (Bank for International Settlements 2011a;  2011b).  Liquidity standards will for the first time formally limit the amount of banks’ maturity transformation (Bank for International Settlements 2013).  Regular stress testing will help both banks and regulators understand risks and will force banks to use earnings to build capital instead of paying dividends as conditions deteriorate (Board of Governors 2011).    

The  Dodd-Frank Act of 2010  also created new provisions for the treatment of large financial institutions. For example, the Financial Stability Oversight Council has the authority to designate nontraditional credit intermediaries “Systemically Important Financial Institutions” (SIFIs), which subjects them to the oversight of the Federal Reserve. The act also created the Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA), which allows the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to wind down certain institutions when the firm’s failure is expected to pose a great risk to the financial system. Another provision of the act requires large financial institutions to create “living wills,” which are detailed plans laying out how the institution could be resolved under US bankruptcy code without jeopardizing the rest of the financial system or requiring government support.

Like the  Great Depression  of the 1930s and the  Great Inflation  of the 1970s, the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing recession are vital areas of study for economists and policymakers. While it may be many years before the causes and consequences of these events are fully understood, the effort to untangle them is an important opportunity for the Federal Reserve and other agencies to learn lessons that can inform future policy.

• 1  Many of these actions were taken under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, which at that time authorized lending to individuals, partnerships, and corporations in “unusual and exigent” circumstances and subject to other restrictions. After the amendments to Section 13(3) made by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, Federal Reserve lending under Section 13(3) is permitted only to participants in a program or facility with “broad based eligibility,” with prior approval of the secretary of the treasury, and when several other conditions are met.
• 2  For more on interest on reserves, see Ennis and Wolman (2010).

Bibliography

Bank for International Settlements. “ Basel III: A global regulatory framework for more resilient banks and banking system .” Revised June 2011a.

Bank for International Settlements. “ Global systemically important banks: Assessment methodology and the additional loss absorbency requirement .” July 2011b.

Bernanke, Ben, “The Global Saving Glut and the U.S. Current Account Deficit,” Speech given at the Sandridge Lecture, Virginia Association of Economists, Richmond, Va., March 10, 2005.

Bernanke, Ben,“Monetary Policy and the Housing Bubble,” Speech given at the Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, Atlanta, Ga., January 3, 2010.

Bernanke, Ben, “Monetary Policy Since the Onset of the Crisis,” Speech given at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, Wyo., August 31, 2012.

Covitz, Daniel, Nellie Liang, and Gustavo Suarez. “The Evolution of a Financial Crisis: Collapse of the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Market.” Journal of Finance 68, no. 3 (2013): 815-48.

Ennis, Huberto, and Alexander Wolman. “Excess Reserves and the New Challenges for Monetary Policy.” Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Brief   no. 10-03 (March 2010).   

Federal Reserve System, Capital Plan , 76 Fed Reg. 74631 (December 1, 2011) (codified at 12 CFR 225.8).

Taylor, John,“Housing and Monetary Policy,” NBER Working Paper 13682, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, December 2007.     

Written as of November 22, 2013. See disclaimer .

Essays in this Time Period

• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010
• Federal Reserve Credit Programs During the Meltdown
• The Great Recession
• Subprime Mortgage Crisis
• Support for Specific Institutions

Related People

Ben S. Bernanke Chairman

Board of Governors

2006 – 2014

Timothy F. Geithner President

New York Fed

2003 – 2008

Related Links

• FRASER: Text of Dodd Frank Act

Federal Reserve History

Financial Crisis

• The Financial Crisis
• Financial Data Tools

Articles and Papers

Monetary Policy and the Crisis

Historical perspectives on the crisis, what caused the crisis, the role of subprime mortgages.

• Possible Solutions

Financial Crisis Articles & Papers: All Topics

The articles and papers listed here cover aspects of the financial crisis and represent a range of opinions and analysis. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis does not endorse the views presented in these articles or papers.

The Crisis: An Overview

The "Surprising" Origin and Nature of Financial Crises: A Macroeconomic Policy Proposal by Ricardo J. Caballero and Pablo Kurlat in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Symposium , August 2009

The authors discuss three key ingredients for severe finanical crises in developed financial markets. Then they offer a policy proposal of tradable insurance credits to address a systemic crisis.

Bank Lending During the Financial Crisis of 2008 by Victoria Ivashina and David Scharfstein in SSRN , December 2008

This paper documents that new loans to large borrowers fell by 37% during the peak period of the financial crisis (September-November 2008) relative to the prior three-month period and by 68% relative to the peak of the credit boom (Mar-May 2007). New lending for real investment (such as capital expenditures) fell to the same extent as new lendi...  

The Commercial Paper Market, the Fed, and the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis by Richard G. Anderson and Charles S. Gascon in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , November 2009

Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, the U.S. commercial paper market has grown to become a key source of short-term funding for major businesses, with issuance averaging over $100 billion per day. In the fall of 2008, the commercial paper market achieved national prominence when increasing market stress caused some to fear that,...  

The Credit Crunch of 2007-2008: A Discussion of the Background, Market Reactions, and Policy Responses by Paul Mizen in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , September 2008

This paper discusses the events surrounding the 2007-08 credit crunch. It highlights the period of exceptional macrostability, the global savings glut, and financial innovation in mortgage-backed securities as the precursors to the crisis. The credit crunch itself occurred when house prices fell and subprime mortgage defaults increased. These event...  

The Crisis: Basic Mechanisms, and Appropriate Policies by Olivier J. Blanchard in IMF Working Ppaer , April 2009

The purpose of this lecture is to look beyond the complex events that characterize the global financial and economic crisis, identify the basic mechanisms, and infer the policies needed to resolve the current crisis, as well as the policies needed to reduce the probability of similar events in the future.

Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007-08 by Markus K. Brunnermeier in Journal of Economic Perspectives , November 2008

This paper summarizes and explains the main events of the liquidity and credit crunch in 2007-08. Starting with the trends leading up to the crisis, Brunnermeier explains how these events unfolded and how four different amplification mechanisms magnified losses in the mortgage market into large dislocations and turmoil in financial markets.

Economic Recovery and Balance Sheet Normalization by Narayana R. Kocherlakota in Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis , April 2010

Speech before the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce

The Economics of Bank Restructuring: Understanding the Options by Augustin Landier and Kenichi Ueda in IMF Staff Position Note , June 2009

Based on a simple framework, this note clarifies the economics behind bank restructuring and evaluates various restructuring options for systemically important banks. The note assumes that the government aims to reduce the probability of a bank’s default and keep the burden on taxpayers at a minimum. The note also acknowledges that the design of...  

Factors Affecting Efforts to Limit Payments to AIG Counterparties by Thomas C. Baxter Jr. in Federal Reserve Bank of New York , February 2010

Testimony before the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, U.S. House of Representatives

Facts and Myths about the Financial Crisis of 2008 by V. V. Chari, Lawrence Christiano and Patrick J. Kehoe in Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Working Paper , October 2008

This paper examines three claims about the way the financial crisis is affecting the economy as a whole and argues that all three claims are myths. It also presents three underappreciated facts about how the financial system intermediates funds between households and corporate businesses.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Involvement with AIG by Thomas C. Baxter and Sarah J. Dahlgren in Federal Reserve Bank of New York , May 2010

Joint written testimony of Thomas C. Baxter and Sarah Dahlgren before the Congressional Oversight Panel, Washington, D.C.

The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet by Ben S. Bernanke in Speech , April 2009

The Federal Reserve has taken a number of aggressive and creative policy actions, many of which are reflected in the size and composition of the Fed's balance sheet. Bernanke provides a brief guided tour of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet as an instructive way to discuss the Fed's policy strategy and some related issues.

The Financial Crisis: Toward an Explanation and Policy Response by Aaron Steelman and John A.Weinberg in Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Annual Report 2008 , April 2009

The essay is divided into the four sections. First, what has happened in the financial markets. Second, why those events took place. Third, possible market imperfections that could produce turmoil in the financial markets and an assessment of the role they have played in this case. And, fourth, how policymakers should respond in these difficult and...  

Financial Turmoil and the Economy by Frederick Furlong and Simon Kwan in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Annual Report 2008 , May 2009

An overview of the financial crisis.

The Global Recession by Craig P. Aubuchon and David C. Wheelock in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , May 2009

Presents information on the percentage of economies around the world that are in recession, and offers comparisons with previous economic declines.

The Global Roots of the Current Financial Crisis and its Implications for Regulations by Anil K. Kashyap, Raghuram Rajan and Jeremy Stein in 5th ECB Central Banking Conference , November 2008

Where did the current financial crisis come from? Who or what is to blame? How will it be resolved? How do we undertake reforms for the future? These are the questions this paper will seek to answer. The analysis will have three parts. The first is a rough and ready sketch of the global roots of this crisis. Second, the authors focus in a more d...  

Interest on Excess Reserves as a Monetary Policy Instrument: The Experience of Foreign Central Banks by David Bowman, Etienne Gagnon, and Mike Leahy in Board of Governors International Finance Discussion Papers , March 2010

This paper reviews the experience of eight major foreign central banks with policy interest rates comparable to the interest rate on excess reserves paid by the Federal Reserve. We pursue two main lines of inquiry: 1) To what extent have these policy interest rates been lower bounds for short-term market rates, and 2) to what extent has tighteni...  

Lending Standards in Mortgage Markets by Carlos Garriga, in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , May 2009

Examines the mortgage denial rates by loan type as an indicator of loose lending standards.

Lessons Learned from the Financial Crisis by William C. Dudley in Speech , June 2009

In assessing the lessons of the past two years, Dudley focuses on five broad themes that are interrelated: Interconnectedness of the financial system; System dynamics—How does the system respond to shocks?; Incentives—Can we improve outcomes by changing incentives?; Transparency; How should central banks respond to asset bubbles?

Liquidity Risk, Credit Risk, and the Federal Reserve’s Responses to the Crisis by Asani Sarkar in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , September 2009

In responding to the severity and broad scope of the financial crisis that began in 2007, the Federal Reserve has made aggressive use of both traditional monetary policy instruments and innovative tools in an effort to provide liquidity. In this paper, the author examines the Fed’s actions in light of the underlying financial amplification mechanis...  

Looking Behind the Aggregates: A Reply to "Facts and Myths about the Financial Crisis of 2008" by Ethan Cohen-Cole, Burcu Duygan-Bump, Jose Fillat and Judit Montoriol-Garriga in Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Working Paper , November 2008

In reply to the FRB of Minneapolis article by Chari et al. (2008) the authors of this paper argue that to evaluate the four common claims about the impact of financial sector phenomena on the economy, (which the FRB Boston authors conclude are all myths), one needs to look at the underlying composition of financial aggregates. This article find ...  

A Minsky Meltdown: Lessons for Central Bankers by Janet Yellen in FRBSF Economic Letter , May 2009

In this essay, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Yellen reconsiders the notion of a 'Minsky Meltdown' and suggests that it is time to reconsider the notion that a central bank can not intervene in bubbles. Yellen also outlines her thoughts on supervisory and regulatory policies going forward, and the importance of varying capital req...  

Overview: Global Financial Crisis Spurs Unprecedented Policy Actions by Ingo Fender and Jacob Gyntelberg in BIS Quarterly Review , December 2008

A four-stage overview of the crisis. Market developments over the period under review went through four more or less distinct stages. Stage one, which led into the Lehman bankruptcy in mid-September, was marked by the takeover of two major US housing finance agencies by the authorities in the United States. Stage two encompassed the immediate impl...  

The Panic of 2007 by Gary B. Gorton in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Symposium: Maintaining Stability in a Changing Financial System , October 2008

How did problems with subprime mortgages result in a systemic crisis, a panic? The ongoing Panic of 2007 is due to a loss of information about the location and size of risks of loss due to default on a number of interlinked securities, special purpose vehicles, and derivatives, all related to subprime mortgages. Subprime mortgages are a financial...  

Preparing for a Smooth (Eventual) Exit by Brian P. Sack in Federal Reseve Bank of New York , March 2010

Remarks at the National Association for Business Economics Policy Conference, Arlington, Virginia

Putting the Financial Crisis and Lending Activity in a Broader Context by Kevin L. Kliesen in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , February 2009

This paper discusses how banks typically tighten credit standards and/or loan terms as the economy weakens and nonperforming loans increase. But an adverse shock from outside the financial sector can be just as important—such as a sharp increase in oil prices or a plunge in house prices.

The Response of the Federal Reserve to the Recent Banking and Financial Crisis by Randall S. Kroszner and William Melick in Chicago Booth School of Business Working Paper , December 2009

The authors present an account of the policy actions taken by the Fed, providing a narrative that brings together information that otherwise requires consulting a variety of sources. They also present a framework for thinking about the central bank policy response that gives the reader a means of organizing her own understanding of the response. A...  

The Role of Liquidity in Financial Crises by Franklin Allen and Elena Carletti in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Symposium: Maintaining Stability in a Changing Financial System , September 2008

The purpose of this paper is to use insights from the academic literature on crises to understand the role of liquidity in the current crisis. Allen and Carletti focus on four of the crucial features of the crisis that they argue are related to liquidity provision. The first is the fall of the prices of AAA-rated tranches of securitized products be...  

Speculative Bubbles and Financial Crisis by Pengfei Wang and Yi Wen in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Working Paper , July 2009

Why are asset prices so much more volatile and so often detached from their fundamental values? Why does the bursting of financial bubbles depress the real economy? This paper addresses these questions by constructing an in?nite-horizon heterogeneous agent general equilibrium model with speculative bubbles. We characterize conditions under which st...  

The Supervisory Capital Assessment Program--One Year Later by Ben S. Bernanke in Speech , May 2010

At the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago 46th Annual Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, Chicago, Illinois

The Taylor Rule and the Practice of Central Banking by Pier Francesco Asso, George A. Kahn, and Robert Leeson in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Working Paper , February 2010

The Taylor rule has revolutionized the way many policymakers at central banks think about monetary policy. It has framed policy actions as a systematic response to incoming information about economic conditions, as opposed to a period-by-period optimization problem. It has emphasized the importance of adjusting policy rates more than one-for-one in...  

Toward an Effective Resolution Regime for Large Financial Institutions by Daniel K. Tarullo in Board of Governors Speech , March 2010

At the Symposium on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century, Armonk, New York

A Word on the Economy (with audio) by Julie L. Stackhouse in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Educational Resources , September 2009

A powerpoint slideshow describing the subprime mortgage meltdown and how it relates to the overall financial crisis. Updated September 2009

“How Central Should the Central Bank Be?” A Comment by Christopher J. Neely in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , April 2010

The Reserve Bank presidents are fully accountable to our democratic institutions and the decentralized structure promotes healthy debate on monetary policy and regulatory issues.

Actions to Restore Financial Stability: A summary of recent Federal Reserve initiatives by Niel Willardson in The Region (Minneapolis Fed) , December 2008

This article provides a summary of recent Federal Reserve initiatives designed to reestablish normal credit channels and flows in the wake of the current financial crisis.

Activist Fiscal Policy to Stabilize Economic Activity by Alan J. Auerbach and William G. Gale in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Symposium , August 2009

This paper examines the effects of discretionary fiscal policy in the current financial crisis.

Alt-A: The Forgotten Segment of the Mortgage Market by Rajdeep Sengupta in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , January 2010

This study presents a brief overview of the Alt-A mortgage market with the goal of outlining broad trends in the different borrower and mortgage characteristics of Alt-A market originations between 2000 and 2006. The paper also documents the default patterns of Alt-A mortgages in terms of the various borrower and mortgage characteristics over th...  

Asset Bubbles and the Implications for Central Bank Policy by William C. Dudley in Federal Reserve Bank of New York , April 2010

Remarks at The Economic Club of New York, New York City

An Autopsy of the U.S. Financial System: Accident, Suicide, or Negligent Homicide? by Ross Levine in Brown University Working Paper , April 2010

In this postmortem, I find that the design, implementation, and maintenance of financial policies during the period from 1996 through 2006 were primary causes of the financial system’s demise. The evidence is inconsistent with the view that the collapse of the financial system was caused only by the popping of the housing bubble and the herding ...  

Bank Exposure to Commercial Real Estate by Yuliya Demyanyk and Kent Cherny in Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Economic Trends , August 2009

As rising home foreclosures and delinquencies continue to undermine a financial and economic recovery, an increasing amount of attention is being paid to another corner of the property market: commercial real estate. This article discusses bank exposure to the commercial real estate market.

Bankers Acceptances and Unconventional Monetary Policy: FAQs by Richard G. Anderson in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , March 2009

An expansion and FAQ following on an earlier article ("Bankers Acceptances: Yesterday's Instrument to Re-Start Today's Credit Markets?"). Describes possible implementation of a Banker's Acceptances program at the Federal Reserve.

Bankers’ Acceptances: Yesterday’s Instrument to Restart Today's Credit Markets? by Richard G. Anderson in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , January 2009

This note suggests considering an old—not new—financial market instrument: bankers’ acceptances. Bankers’ acceptances are one of the world’s older financial instruments, used as early as the twelfth century. Bankers’ acceptances have a long history in the Federal Reserve. Bankers’ acceptances are an old idea whose time may have returned—but with c...  

Beyond the Crisis: Reflections on the Challenges by Terrence J. Checki in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Speech , December 2009

A discussion of the challenges facing the financial system and reform.

A Black Swan in the Money Market by John B. Taylor and John C. Williams in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper , April 2008

At the center of the financial market crisis of 2007-2008 was a jump in spreads between the overnight inter-bank lending rate and term London inter-bank offer rates (Libor). Because many private loans are linked to Libor rates, the sharp increase in these spreads raised the cost of borrowing and interfered with monetary policy. The widening spread...  

Central Bank Exit Policies by Donald L. Kohn in Speech, Board of Governors , September 2009

Kohn briefly underlines some aspects of the Federal Reserve's framework for exiting the unusual policies put in place to ameliorate the effects of the financial turmoil of the past two years

Central Bank Response to the 2007-08 Financial Market Turbulence: Experiences and Lessons Drawn by Alexandre Chailloux, Simon Gray, Ulrich Klüh, Seiichi Shimizu, and Peter Stella in IMF Working Paper , September 2008

The paper reviews the policy response of major central banks during the 2007–08 financial market turbulence and suggests that there is scope for convergence among central bank operational frameworks through the adoption of those elements that proved most instrumental in calming markets. These include (i) rapid liquidity provision to a broad rang...  

Central Banks and Financial Crises by Willem H. Buiter in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Symposium: Maintaining Stability in a Changing Financial System , August 2008

This paper draws lessons from the experience of the past year for the conduct of central banks in the pursuit of macroeconomic and financial stability. Macroeconomic stability is defined as either price stability or as price stability and sustainable output or employment growth. Financial stability refers to (1) the absence of asset price bubbles...  

Commercial Bank Lending Data during the Crisis: Handle with Care by Silvio Contessi and Hoda El-Ghazaly, in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , August 2009

A discussion of commercial bank lending data, inferences that can be drawn from the data, and some caveats about the data.

Confronting Too Big to Fail by Daniel K. Tarullo in Speech, Board of Governors , October 2009

Tarullo suggests that the reform process cannot be judged a success unless it substantially reduces systemic risk generally and, in particular, the too-big-to-fail problem. This speech addresses the task of forging an effective response to this problem

Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policy by Vasco Cúrdia and Michael Woodford in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , November 2009

We extend a standard New Keynesian model both to incorporate heterogeneity in spending opportunities along with two sources of (potentially time-varying) credit spreads and to allow a role for the central bank’s balance sheet in determining equilibrium. We use the model to investigate the implications of imperfect financial intermediation for famil...  

Crisis and Responses: the Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis of 2007-08 by Stephen G. Cecchetti in NBER Working Paper (requires subscription) , June 2008

Realizing that their traditional instruments were inadequate for responding to the crisis that began on 9 August 2007, Federal Reserve officials improvised. Beginning in mid-December 2007, they implemented a series of changes directed at ensuring that liquidity would be distributed to those institutions that needed it most. Conceptually, this me...  

The Curious Case of the U.S. Monetary Base by Richard G. Anderson in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Regional Economist , July 2009

Recent increases in the monetary base are far greater than any previously in American history, surely a "noble experiment" in policymaking. Whether these policies can succeed—and without accelerating inflation—remains to be seen.

The Dependence of the Financial System on Central Bank and Government Support by Petra Gerlach in BIS Quarterly Review , March 2010

How much does the banking sector depend on public support? Utilisation of many support facilities has declined, due mainly to a fall in demand. Supply factors play a smaller, but not insignificant role, as governments and central banks have tightened the conditions on which certain support measures are available or have phased them out entirely. Ho...  

Do Central Bank Liquidity Facilities by Jens H. E. Christensen, Jose A. Lopez, and Glenn D. Rudebusch in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper , June 2009

In response to the global financial crisis that started in August 2007, central banks provided extraordinary amounts of liquidity to the financial system. To investigate the effect of central bank liquidity facilities on term interbank lending rates, the authors estimate a six-factor arbitrage-free model of U.S. Treasury yields, financial corporate...  

The Economic Outlook and the Fed's Balance Sheet: The Issue of "How" versus "When" by William C. Dudley in Speech , July 2009

Dudley comments on the economy and the economic outlook—where we have been and where we may be going. He suggests that the balance of risks is still tilted toward weakness in growth and employment and not toward higher inflation. He also discusses the impact of the Federal Reserve’s lending facilities and purchase programs on the size of the Fed’s ...  

Economic Policy: Lessons from History by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors Speech , April 2010

At the 43rd Annual Alexander Hamilton Awards Dinner, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, Washington, D.C.

The Effect of the Term Auction Facility on the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate by James McAndrews, Asani Sarkar and Zhenyu Wang in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report , July 2008

This paper examines the effects of the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility (TAF) on the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR). The particular question investigated is whether the announcements and operations of the TAF are associated with downward shifts of the LIBOR; such an association would provide one indication of the efficacy of the TAF ...  

Effective Practices in Crisis Resolution and the Case of Sweden by O. Emre Ergungor and Kent Cherny in Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Economic Commentary , February 2009

The current fi nancial crisis is a painful reminder that the developed world is not yet immune to these devastating shocks. But while we haven’t learned to prevent them, we have learned some lessons about what is necessary to contain them once they begin and to limit the damage that follows. As policymakers worldwide focus on resolving the current ...  

The Fed as Lender of Last Resort by James B. Bullard in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Regional Economist , January 2009

Because our central bank has relied on the federal funds rate target for so long to guide the economy, many people think that the target rate is the only tool at the Fed’s disposal. As we are seeing in the current financial crisis, the Fed has other options. Most visible so far have been the lending programs that have been created in the past year,...  

The Fed's Response to the Credit Crunch by Craig P. Aubuchon in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Econoimc Synopses , January 2009

The Federal Reserve Board has used Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act to create several new lending facilities to address the ongoing strains in the credit market.

The Fed, Liquidity, and Credit Allocation by Daniel Thornton in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , January 2009

The current financial turmoil has generated considerable discussion of liquidity. Moreover, it has been widely reported that the Federal Reserve played a major role in supplying liquidity to financial markets during this distressed time. This article describes two ways in which the Fed has supplied liquidity since late 2007. The first is traditiona...  

The Federal Reserve as Lender of Last Resort during the Panic of 2008 by Kenneth N. Kuttner in Committee on Capital Markets Regulation Report , December 2008

This report examines the impact of the Fed’s unprecedented lending on its formulation and implementation of monetary policy. The first section provides some background on the Fed’s recent actions within the context of its role as lender of last resort (LOLR). The second outlines some of the ways in which the surge in Fed lending has affected the...  

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Federal Reserve Assets: Understanding the Pieces of the Pie by Charles S. Gascon in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , March 2009

This paper examines the composition of assets on the Fed’s balance sheet and groups them according to the objectives of the programs used to acquire them.

The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet: An Update by Ben S. Bernanke in Speech, Board of Governors , October 2009

Bernanke reviews the most important elements of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, as well as some aspects of their evolution over time. With this, he explains the steps the Federal Reserve has taken, beyond conventional interest rate reductions, to mitigate the financial crisis and the recession, as well as how those actions will be reversed as ...  

Federal Reserve's exit strategy by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors Testimony , February 2010

Statement before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. as prepared for delivery. The hearing was postponed due to inclement weather.

The Federal Reserve's Term Auction Facility by Olivier Armantier, Sandra Krieger and James McAndrews in Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Current Issues in Economics and Finance , July 2008

As liquidity conditions in the term funding markets grew increasingly strained in late 2007, the Federal Reserve began making funds available directly to banks through a new tool, the Term Auction Facility (TAF). The facility is designed to improve liquidity by making it easier for sound institutions to borrow when the markets are not operating ...  

The Federal Reserve’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility by Tobias Adrian, Karin Kimbrough, and Dina Marchioni in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , January 2010

The Federal Reserve created the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) in the midst of severe disruptions in money markets following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008. The CPFF finances the purchase of highly rated unsecured and asset-backed commercial paper from eligible issuers via primary dealers. The facility is a liquid...  

Financial Crises and Bank Failures: A Review of Prediction Methods by Yuliya Demyanyk and Iftekhar Hasan in Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Working Paper , June 2009

In this article the authors analyze financial and economic circumstances associated with the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the global financial turmoil that has led to severe crises in many countries. They suggest that the level of cross-border holdings of long-term securities between the United States and the rest of the world may indicate...  

The Financial Crisis: An Inside View by Phillip Swagel in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , April 2009

This paper reviews the events associated with the credit market disruption that began in August 2007 and developed into a full-blown crisis in the fall of 2008. This is necessarily an incomplete history: the paper is being written in the months immediately after Swagel left Treasury, where he served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy from D...  

Financial Instability, Reserves, and Central Bank Swap Lines in the Panic of 2008 by Maurice Obstfeld, Jay C. Shambaugh and Alan M. Taylor in AEA Presentation Paper , December 2008

In this paper the authors connect the events of the last twelve months, “the Panic of 2008” as it has been called, to the demand for international reserves. In previous work, the authors have shown that international reserve demand can be rationalized by a central bank’s desire to backstop the broad money supply to avert the possibility of an in...  

Financial Intermediaries, Financial Stability and Monetary Policy by Tobias Adrian and Hyun Song Shin in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Symposium: Maintaining Stability in a Changing Financial System , September 2008

In a market-based financial system, banking and capital market developments are inseparable. Adrian and Shin document evidence that balance sheets of market-based financial intermediaries provide a window on the transmission of monetary policy through capital market conditions. Short-term interest rates are determinants of the cost of leverage and ...  

Focusing on Bank Interest Rate Risk Exposure by Donald L. Kohn in Board of Governors Speech , January 2010

At the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Symposium on Interest Rate Risk Management, Arlington, Virginia

A Framework for Assessing the Systemic Risk of Major Financial Institutions by Xin Huang, Hao Zhou, and Haibin Zhu in Federal Reserve Board, Finance and Economics Discussion Series , September 2009

In this paper the authors propose a framework for measuring and stress testing the systemic risk of a group of major financial institutions. The systemic risk is measured by the price of insurance against financial distress, which is based on ex ante measures of default probabilities of individual banks and forecasted asset return correlations. Imp...  

Further Results on a Black Swan in the Money Market by John B. Taylor and John C. Williams in Stanford University Working Paper , May 2008

Using alternative measures of term lending rates and counterparty risk and a wide variety of econometric specifications, we find that counterparty risk has a robust significant effect on interest rate spreads in the term inter-bank loan markets. In contrast, we do not find comparably robust evidence of significant negative effects of the Fed’s t...  

Getting Back on Track: Macroeconomic Policy Lessons from the Financial Crisis by John B. Taylor in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , May 2010

This article reviews the role of monetary and fiscal policy in the financial crisis and draws lessons for future macroeconomic policy. It shows that policy deviated from what had worked well in the previous two decades by becoming more interventionist, less rules-based, and less predictable. The policy implications are thus that policy should “g...  

Government assistance to AIG by Scott G. Alvarez in Testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel, U.S. Congress , May 2010

Housing, Mortgage Markets, and Foreclosures at the Federal Reserve System Conference on Housing and Mortgage Markets, Washington, D.C. by Ben Bernanke in Speech , December 2008

Housing and housing finance played a central role in precipitating the current crisis. Declining house prices, delinquencies and foreclosures, and strains in mortgage markets are now symptoms as well as causes of our general financial and economic difficulties. The most effective approach very likely will involve a full range of coordinated measu...  

How Did a Domestic Housing Slump Turn into a Global Financial Crisis? by Steven B. Kamin and Laurie Pounder DeMarco in Board of Governors International Finance Discussion Papers , January 2010

The global financial crisis clearly started with problems in the U.S. subprime sector and spread across the world from there. But was the direct exposure of foreigners to the U.S. financial system a key driver of the crisis, or did other factors account for its rapid contagion across the world? To answer this question, we assessed whether countr...  

How Not to Reduce Excess Reserves by David C. Wheelock in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , August 2009

The author looks back to a simliar economic situation during the 1930s for insights into how to handle excess reserves.

How the Subprime Crisis Went Global: Evidence from Bank Credit Default Swap Spreads by Barry Eichengreen, Ashoka Mody, Milan Nedeljkovic, and Lucio Sarno in NBER Working Paper (requires subscription) , April 2009

How did the Subprime Crisis, a problem in a small corner of U.S. financial markets, affect the entire global banking system? To shed light on this question we use principal components analysis to identify common factors in the movement of banks' credit default swap spreads. We find that fortunes of international banks rise and fall together even...  

How to Avoid a New Financial Crisis by Oliver Hart and Luigi Zingales in University of Chicago Booth School of Business Research Paper , November 2009

This paper discusses the origins of the financial crisis in terms of risk, and then offers proposals for ways to fix the system.

International Policy Response to the Financial Crisis by Masaaki Shirakawa in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Symposium , August 2009

A discussion of the future of international coordination between central banks in the wake of the current financial crisis.

Interview with Raghuram Rajan in Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Region , December 2009

An interview with Rajan discussing the current financial crisis and possible solutions for the future.

Is Monetary Policy Effective During Financial Crises? by Frederic S. Mishkin in NBER Working Paper (requires subscription) , January 2009

The tightening of credit standards and the failure of the cost of credit to households and businesses to fall despite the sharp easing of monetary policy has led to a common view that monetary policy has not been effective during the recent financial crisis. Mishkin disagrees and believes that financial crises of the type we have been experiencing ...  

Is the Financial Crisis Over? A Yield Spread Perspective by Massimo Guidolin and Yu Man Tam in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , September 2009

Our finding is consistent with some recent, substantial volatility in the U.S. corporate bond market and leaves open a possibility that additional, future shocks to default premia may have long-lived effects.

Lessons Learned? Comparing the Federal Reserve’s Responses to the Crises of 1929-1933 and 2007-2009 by David C. Wheelock in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , March 2010

The financial crisis of 2007-09 is widely viewed as the worst financial disruption since the Great Depression of 1929-33. However, the accompanying economic recession was mild compared with the Great Depression, though severe by postwar standards. Aggressive monetary, fiscal, and financial policies are widely credited with limiting the impact of...  

Lessons of the Crisis: The Implications for Regulatory Reform by William C. Dudley in Speech, Federal Reserve Bank of New York , January 2010

Remarks at the Partnership for New York City Discussion, New York City.

The Longer-Term Challenges Ahead by William C. Dudley in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Speech , March 2010

Remarks at the Council of Society Business Economists Annual Dinner, London, United Kingdom

Macroprudential Supervision and Monetary Policy in the Post-crisis World by Janet L. Yellen in Board of Governors Speech , October 2010

Speech at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Business Economics, Denver, Colorado

The Mechanics of a Graceful Exit: Interest on Reserves and Segmentation in the Federal Funds Market by Morten L. Bech and Elizabeth Klee in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , December 2009

To combat the financial crisis that intensified in the fall of 2008, the Federal Reserve injected a substantial amount of liquidity into the banking system. The resulting increase in reserve balances exerted downward price pressure in the federal funds market, and the effective federal funds rate began to deviate from the target rate set by the Fed...  

Monetary Policy and Asset Prices by Brett W. Fawley and Luciana Juvenal in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , April 2010

reminder that asset prices can and do run wild at rates capable of negative effects on real economic activity. Not surprisingly, this has reinvigorated debate over whether central banks should respond to asset price bubbles.

Monetary Policy and the Recent Extraordinary Measures Taken by the Federal Reserve by John B. Taylor in U.S. House Committee on Financial Services , February 2009

Written testimony before the Committee on Financial Services U.S. House of Representatives on monetary policy and the "extraordinary measures" taken by the Federal Reserve over the past 18 months.

Monetary Policy in the Crisis: Past, Present, and Future by Donald L. Kohn in Board of Governors Speech , January 2010

Speech given at the Brimmer Policy Forum, American Economic Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia

More Lessons from the Crisis by William C. Dudley in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Speech , November 2009

Remarks at the Center for Economic Policy Studies Symposium

More Money: Understanding Recent Changes in the Monetary Base by William T. Gavin in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , March 2009

The financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 took a turn for the worse in September 2008. Until then, Federal Reserve actions taken to improve the functioning financial markets did not affect the monetary base. The unusual lending and purchase of private debt was offset by the sale of Treasury securities so that the total size of the ba...  

Moving Beyond the Financial Crisis by Elizabeth A. Duke in Board of Governors Speech , June 2010

At the Consumer Bankers Association Annual Conference, Hollywood, Florida

On the Effectiveness of the Federal Reserve's New Liquidity Facilities by Tao Wu in Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Working Paper , May 2008

This paper examines the effectiveness of the new liquidity facilities that the Federal Reserve established in response to the recent financial crisis. I develop a no-arbitrage based affine term structure model with default risk and conduct a thorough factor analysis of the counterparty default risk among major financial institutions and the underly...  

Paying Interest on Deposits at Federal Reserve Banks by Richard G. Anderson in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , November 2008

The implementation of monetary policy in developed economies relies on three interest rates: a policy target rate, one or more lending (or, discount) rates, and a remuneration rate, the rate of interest the central bank pays on the deposits that banks hold at the central bank. In the current economic crisis, management of the remuneration rate has ...  

Policies to Bring Us Out of the Financial Crisis and Recession by Donald L. Kohn in Speech , April 2009

Kohn discusses the actions the government is taking to address our current financial and economic difficulties, focusing on the economic and financial problems and policy responses in the United States.

Provision of Liquidity through the Primary Credit Facility during the Financial Crisis: A Structural Analysis by Erhan Artuç and Selva Demiralp in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review , October 2009

In response to the liquidity crisis that began in August 2007, central banks designed a variety of tools for supplying liquidity to financial institutions. The Federal Reserve introduced several programs, such as the Term Auction Facility, the Term Securities Lending Facility, and the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, while enhancing its open market ...  

Putting the Low Road Behind Us by Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin in Speech at the 2011 Midwinter Housing Finance Conference, Park City, Utah , February 2011

In this speech Governor Raskin shares some thoughts about the powerful impact the housing and mortgage markets have on the nation's economic recovery, presents some ideas to effect positive change in the mortgage servicing industry, and finally imparts a guiding principle that should help us find our way through the current struggles and drive the ...  

Quantitative Easing: Entrance and Exit Strategies by Alan S. Blinder in Federal Reseve Bank of St. Louis Homer Jones Memorial Lecture , April 2010

Blinder discussed the concept of quantitative easing, the Fed's entrance strategy, the Fed's exit strategy, and its implications for central bank independence.

Questions about Fiscal Policy: Implications from the Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 by N. Gregory Mankiw in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , May 2010

This article is a modified version of remarks given at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s policy forum “Policy Lessons from the Economic and Financial Crisis,” December 4, 2009.

Questions and Answers about the Financial Crisis by Gary Gorton in Prepared Testimony for the U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission , February 2010

All bond prices plummeted (spreads rose) during the financial crisis, not just the prices of subprimerelated bonds. These price declines were due to a banking panic in which institutional investors and firms refused to renew sale and repurchase agreements (repo) – short?term, collateralized, agreements that the Fed rightly used to count as money...  

Reaping the Full Benefits of Financial Openness by Yellen, Janet L. in Federal Reserve Board of Governors Speech , May 2011

Speech at the Bank of Finland 200th Anniversary Conference, Helsinki, Finland

Reflections on a Year of Crisis by Ben S. Bernanke in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Symposium , August 2009

The opening remarks at the Jackson Hole conference, "Financial Stability and Macroeconomic Policy"

Resolution Process for Financial Companies that Pose Systemic Risk to the Financial System and Overall Economy by Thomas M. Hoenig, Charles S. Morris, and Kenneth Spong in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Speech , September 2009

The Under current law, financial regulators do not have the authority to resolve financial holding companies and non-depository financial companies that are in default or serious danger of default as they have with depository institutions. Although the normal bankruptcy process is a very effective process for most non-depository financial companie...  

Rethinking Macroeconomic Policy by Olivier Blanchard, Giovanni Dell’Ariccia, and Paolo Mauro in IMF Staff Position Note , February 2010

The great moderation lulled macroeconomists and policymakers alike in the belief that we knew how to conduct macroeconomic policy. The crisis clearly forces us to question that assessment. In this paper, we review the main elements of the pre-crisis consensus, we identify where we were wrong and what tenets of the pre-crisis framework still hold, a...  

The Risk of Deflation by John C.Williams in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter , March 2009

This article examines the risk of deflation in the United States by reviewing the evidence from past episodes of deflation and inflation.

The Role of the Federal Reserve in a New Financial Order by Paul A. Volcker in Speech at the Economic Club of New York , January 2010

Paul Volcker's discussion of the role of the Federal Reserve in light of the Financial Crisis.

The Role of the Securitization Process in the Expansion of Subprime Credit by Taylor D. Nadauld and Shane M. Sherlund in Board of Governors Finance and Economics Discussion Series , April 2009

The authors analyze the structure and attributes of subprime mortgage-backed securitization deals originated between 1997 and 2007. Their data set allows us to link loan-level data for over 6.7 million subprime loans to the securitization deals into which the loans were sold. They show that the securitization process, including the assignment of cr...  

Shadow Banking by Zoltan Pozsar, Tobias Adrian, Adam Ashcraft, Hayley Boesky in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports no. 458 , July 2010

This paper documents the origins, evolution and economic role of the shadow banking system. Its aim is to aid regulators and policymakers globally to reform, regulate and supervise the process of securitized credit intermediation in a market-based financial system.

The Shadow Banking System: Implications for Financial Regulation by Tobias Adrian and Hyun Song Shin in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report , July 2009

The current financial crisis has highlighted the growing importance of the “shadow banking system,” which grew out of the securitization of assets and the integration of banking with capital market developments. This trend has been most pronounced in the United States, but it has had a profound influence on the global financial system. In a market-...  

Should Monetary Policy “Lean or Clean”?* by William R. White in Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Working Paper , August 2009

It has been contended by many in the central banking community that monetary policy would not be effective in “leaning” against the upswing of a credit cycle (the boom) but that lower interest rates would be effective in “cleaning” up (the bust) afterwards. In this paper, these two propositions (can’t lean, but can clean) are examined and found ser...  

Some Observations and Lessons from the Crisis by Simon M. Potter in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Speech , June 2010

Remarks at the Third Annual Connecticut Bank and Trust Company Economic Outlook Breakfast, Hartford, Connecticut

Structural Causes of the Global Financial Crisis: A Critical Assessment of the ‘New Financial Architecture’ by James Crotty in University of Massachusetts Amherst Working Paper , August 2008

The main thesis of this paper is that the ultimate cause of the current global financial crisis is to be found in the deeply flawed institutions and practices of what is often referred to as the New Financial Architecture (NFA) – a globally integrated system of giant bank conglomerates and the so-called ‘shadow banking system’ of investment ban...  

Systemic Risk and Deposit Insurance Premiums by Viral V. Acharya, João A. C. Santos, and Tanju Yorulmazer in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review , October 2009

While systemic risk—the risk of wholesale failure of banks and other financial institutions—is generally considered to be the primary reason for supervision and regulation of the banking industry, almost all regulatory rules treat such risk in isolation. In particular, they do not account for the very features that create systemic risk in the first...  

Systemic Risk and the Financial Crisis: A Primer by James Bullard, Christopher J. Neely, and David C. Wheelock in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , September 2009

How did problems in a relatively small portion of the home mortgage market trigger the most severe financial crisis in the United States since the Great Depression? Several developments played a role, including the proliferation of complex mortgage-backed securities and derivatives with highly opaque structures, high leverage, and inadequate risk m...  

The Term Securities Lending Facility: Origin, Design, and Effects by Michael J. Fleming, Warren B. Hrung and Frank M. Keane in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Current Issues in Economics and Finance , February 2009

The Federal Reserve launched the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) in 2008 to promote liquidity in the funding markets and improve the operation of the broader financial markets. The facility increases the ability of dealers to obtain cash in the private market by enabling them to pledge securities temporarily as collateral for Treasuries, wh...  

Three Funerals and a Wedding by James B. Bullard in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , January 2009

A discussion of three macroeconomic ideas that may be passing away, and one macroeconomic idea that is being rehabilitated.

Three Lessons for Monetary Policy from the Panic of 2008 by James Bullard in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , May 2010

This article is a modified version of a presentation given at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s policy forum “Policy Lessons from the Economic and Financial Crisis,” December 4, 2009.

The U.S. Financial System: Where We Have Been, Where We Are and Where We Need to Go by William C. Dudley in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Speech , February 2010

Remarks at the Reserve Bank of Australia's 50th Anniversary Symposium, Sydney, Australia

Unconventional Monetary Policy Actions by Glen D. Rudebusch in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco FedViews , March 2009

Glenn D. Rudebusch, senior vice president and associate director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, states his views on recent unconventional monetary policy actions. Charts are included.

United States: Financial System Stability Assessment by The Monetary and Capital Markets and Western Hemisphere Departments of the International Monetary Fund in International Monetary Fund, IMF Country Report No. 10/247 , July 2010

A forceful policy response has rolled back systemic market pressures, but the cost of intervention has been high and stability is tenuous. Comprehensive reforms are being legislated, addressing many of the issues that left the system vulnerable. Given the severity of the crisis and the many weaknesses revealed, bolder action could have been envi...  

Valuing the Treasury’s Capital Assistance Program by Paul Glasserman and Zhenyu Wang in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , December 2009

The Capital Assistance Program (CAP) was created by the U.S. government in February 2009 to provide backup capital to large financial institutions unable to raise sufficient capital from private investors. Under the terms of the CAP, a participating bank receives contingent capital by issuing preferred shares to the Treasury combined with embedded ...  

A View of the Economic Crisis and the Federal Reserve’s by Janet L. Yellen in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter , July 2009

The Federal Reserve has responded to a severe recession by developing programs to bolster the financial system and restore economic growth. The Fed has the tools to unwind these programs when appropriate, maintaining price stability. The following is adapted from a speech delivered by the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francis...  

Walter Bagehot, the Discount Window, and TAF by Daniel Thornton in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , October 2008

In response to the mortgage-related distress in financial markets, the Fed has implemented a number of new lending programs. Prominent among these is the Term Auction Facility (TAF), through which the Federal Reserve Banks auction funds to depository institutions. Under the TAF, depository institutions compete for funds by indicating the amount th...  

Would Quantitative Easing Sooner Have Tempered the Financial Crisis and Economic Recession? by Daniel L. Thornton in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , August 2009

The author examines the timing of the quantitative easing employed by the Federal Reserve.

The Aftermath of Financial Crises by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff in Harvard University Working Paper , December 2008

This paper presents a comparative historical analysis that is focused on the aftermath of systemic banking crises. This study of the aftermath of severe financial crises includes a number of recent emerging market cases to expand the relevant set of comparators. Also included in the comparisons are two prewar developed country episodes for which w...  

Banking Crises: An Equal Opportunity Menace by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff in Harvard University Working Paper , December 2008

The historical frequency of banking crises is quite similar in high- and middle-to-low income countries, with quantitative and qualitative parallels in both the run-ups and the aftermath. The authors establish these regularities using a unique dataset spanning from Denmark’s financial panic during the Napoleonic War to the ongoing global financial ...  

The Crisis through the Lens of History by Charles Collyns in International Monetary Fund: Finance and Development , December 2008

The current financial crisis is ferocious, but history shows the way to avoid another Great Depression

The Current Financial Crisis: What Should We Learn from the Great Depressions of the Twentieth Century? by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and Timothy J. Kehoe in Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Staff Report , March 2009

Studying the experience of countries that have experienced great depressions during the twentieth century teaches us that massive public interventions in the economy to maintain employment and investment during a financial crisis can, if they distort incentives enough, lead to a great depression.

The Evolution of the Subprime Mortgage Market by Souphala Chomsisengphet and Anthony Pennington-Cross in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , January 2006

This paper describes subprime lending in the mortgage market and how it has evolved through time. Subprime lending has introduced a substantial amount of risk-based pricing into the mortgage market by creating a myriad of prices and product choices largely determined by borrower credit history (mortgage and rental payments, foreclosures and bankru...  

Financial Statistics for the United States and the Crisis: What Did They Get Right, What Did They Miss, and How Should They Change? by Matthew J. Eichner, Donald L. Kohn, and Michael G. Palumbo in Board of Governors Finance and Economics Discussion Series , April 2010

Although the instruments and transactions most closely associated with the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 were novel, the underlying themes that played out in the crisis were familiar from previous episodes: Competitive dynamics resulted in excessive leverage and risktaking by large, interconnected firms, in heavy reliance on short-term sourc...  

The Global Credit Crisis as History by Barry Eichengreen in University of California Berkeley Polcy Paper , December 2008

During the Great Depression the Fed waited too long to execute its responsibilities as a lender of last resort, thus allowing the banking system to collapse. This time, there has been little hesitation on the part of the Fed to act, which leaves two questions: Why, given that this is a global credit crisis, have policy makers in other countries fai...  

An Historical Perspective on the Crisis of 2007-2008 by Michael D. Bordo in Bank of Chile Conference , November 2008

The current international financial crisis is part of a perennial pattern. Today’s events have echoes in earlier big international financial crises which were triggered by events in the U.S. financial system. Examples include the crises of 1857,1893, 1907 and 1929-1933. This crisis has many similarities to those of the past but also some important ...  

Slapped in the Face by the Invisible Hand: Banking and the Panic of 2007 by Gary B. Gorton in SSRN Paper , May 2009

The 'shadow banking system' at the heart of the current credit crisis is, in fact, a real banking system – and is vulnerable to a banking panic. Indeed, the events starting in August 2007 are a banking panic. A banking panic is a systemic event because the banking system cannot honor its obligations and is insolvent. Unlike the historical banking p...  

Stock-Market Crashes and Depressions by Robert J. Barro and José F. Ursúa in NBER Working Paper (requires subscription) , February 2009

Long-term data for 25 countries up to 2006 reveal 195 stock-market crashes (multi-year real returns of -25% or less) and 84 depressions (multi-year macroeconomic declines of 10% or more), with 58 of the cases matched by timing. The United States has two of the matched events--the Great Depression 1929-33 and the post-WWI years 1917-21, likely drive...  

Systemic Banking Crisis: A New Database by Luc Laeven and Fabian Valencia in IMF Working Paper , November 2008

This paper presents a new database on the timing of systemic banking crises and policy responses to resolve them. The database covers the universe of systemic banking crises for the period 1970-2007, with detailed data on crisis containment and resolution policies for 42 crisis episodes, and also includes data on the timing of currency crises and s...  

This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff in Harvard University Working Paper , April 2008

This paper offers a “panoramic” analysis of the history of financial crises dating from England’s fourteenth-century default to the current United States sub-prime financial crisis. Our study is based on a new dataset that spans all regions. It incorporates a number of important credit episodes seldom covered in the literature, including for exampl...  

Using Monetary Policy to Stabilize Economic Activity by Carl E. Walsh in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Symposium , August 2009

This essay examines the role of monetary policy in stabilizing real economic activity. The author discusses the consensus on monetary policy that developed over the last twenty years. He then examines monetary policy when the policy interest rate has fallen to zero. The paper also assess issues relevant for post-crisis monetary policy.

Where We Go from Here: The Crisis and Beyond by Richard W. Fisher in Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Speech , March 2010

Remarks before the Eller College of Management, University of Arizona

Booms and Busts: The Case of Subprime Mortgages by Edward M. Gramlich in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Review , September 2007

Booms and busts have played a prominent role in American economic history. In the 19th century, the United States benefited from the canal boom, the railroad boom, the minerals boom, and a financial boom. The 20th century brought another financial boom, a postwar boom, and a dot-com boom. The details differed, but each of these cases featured init...  

Central Bank Tools and Liquidity Shortages by Stephen G. Cecchetti and Piti Disyatat in Federarl Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review , October 2009

The global financial crisis that began in mid-2007 has renewed concerns about financial instability and focused attention on the fundamental role of central banks in preventing and managing systemic crises. In response to the turmoil, central banks have made extensive use of both new and existing tools for supplying central bank money to financial ...  

Changes in the U.S. Financial System and the Subprime Crisis by Jan Kregel in Levy Economics Institute Working Paper , April 2008

The paper provides a background to the forces that have produced the present system of residential housing finance, the reasons for the current crisis in mortgage financing, and the impact of the crisis on the overall financial system.

The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the U.S. Mortgage Default Crisis by Atif R. Mian, Amir Sufi in SSRN Working Paper , December 2008

We conduct a within-county analysis using detailed zip code level data to document new findings regarding the origins of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The recent sharp increase in mortgage defaults is significantly amplified in subprime zip codes, or zip codes with a disproportionately large share of subprime borrowers as...  

Counterparty Risk in the Over-The-Counter Derivatives Market by Miguel A. Segoviano and Manmohan Singh in IMF Working Paper , November 2008

The financial market turmoil of recent months has highlighted the importance of counterparty risk. Here, we discuss counterparty risk that may stem from the OTC derivatives markets and attempt to assess the scope of potential cascade effects. This risk is measured by losses to the financial system that may result via the OTC derivative contracts fr...  

The Credit Crisis and Cycle Proof Regulation by Raghuram G. Rajan in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , September 2009

Rajan offers what he called "cycle proof regulation" to help head off a future crisis. Among other things, he proposed: -Highly leveraged financial institutions would be required to buy fully collateralized insurance. This insurance would inject contingent capital into those institutions when they're in trouble. -Financial institutions considered...  

The Credit Crisis: Conjectures about Causes and Remedies by Douglas W. Diamond and Raghuram G. Rajan in AEA Presentation Paper , December 2008

What caused the financial crisis that is sweeping across the world? What keeps asset prices and lending depressed? What can be done to remedy matters? While it is too early to arrive at definite answers to these questions, the focus of this paper is to offer offer informed conjectures.

Did Credit Scores Predict the Subprime Crisis? by Yuliya Demyanyk in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Regional Economist , October 2008

One might expect to find a connection between borrowers' FICO scores and the incidence of default and foreclosure during the current crisis. The data don't show such a cause and effect, however.

Did Prepayments Sustain the Subprime Market? by Geetesh Bhardwaj and Rajdeep Sengupta in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Working Paper , October 2008

This paper demonstrates that the reason for widespread default of mortgages in the subprime market was a sudden reversal in the house price appreciation of the early 2000's. Using loan-level data on subprime mortgages, we observe that the majority of subprime loans were hybrid adjustable rate mortgages, designed to impose substantial financial ...  

The Fed's Expanded Balance Sheet by Brian P. Sack in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Speech , December 2009

The Fed’s balance sheet has moved to the forefront of its policy efforts. Accordingly, to understand the policy choices that lie ahead for the Federal Reserve, one has to understand how the balance sheet got to where it is and what effects it has had on financial markets.

Financial Crises and Economic Activity by Stephen G. Cecchetti, Marion Kohler and Christian Upper in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Symposium , August 2009

The authors use historical data to examine past systemic banking crises and compare them to the current crisis. They also look at the long-term effects of a crisis on economic output.

The Financial Crisis and the Policy Response: An Empirical Analysis of What Went Wrong by John B. Taylor in Stanford University Working Paper , November 2008

This paper is an empirical investigation of the role of government actions and interventions in the financial crisis that flared up in August 2007.

Financial Reform or Financial Dementia? by Richard W. Fisher in Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Speech , June 2010

Remarks at the SW Graduate School of Banking 53rd Annual Keynote Address and Banquet

Fixing Finance: A Roadmap for Reform by Robert E. Litan and Martin N. Baily in Brookings Institution , February 2009

This paper suggests a roadmap for reform of the financial system. The authors suggest that the guiding principles should be market discipline and sound regulation, and provide a detailed outline for changes in financial policy.

Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier? by Raghuram G. Rajan in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Symposium: The Greenspan Era: Lessons for the Future , August 2005

This paper (written pre-crisis in 2005) examines the revolutionary changes in financial systems around the world, such as greater borrowing at lower rates, the multitude of investment options catering to every possible profile of risk and return, and the ability to share risks with strangers from across the globe. The author questions the costs of...  

Has the Recent Real Estate Bubble Biased the Output Gap? by Chanont Banternghansa and Adrian Peralta-Alva in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , December 2009

The authors offer a word of caution to policymakers: Policies based on point estimates of the output gap may not rest on solid ground.

Hedge Funds, Systemic Risk, and the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 by Andrew W. Lo in U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform , November 2008

This article is the written testimony of Andrew Lo on the role of hedge funds in the U.S. financial system and their regulation. For the preliminary transcript, see http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20081114143312.pdf

The Information Value of the Stress Test and Bank Opacity by Stavros Peristiani, Donald P. Morgan, and Vanessa Savino in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 460 , July 2010

We investigate whether the “stress test,” the extraordinary examination of the nineteen largest U.S. bank holding companies conducted by federal bank supervisors in 2009, produced information demanded by the market. Using standard event study techniques, we find that the market had largely deciphered on its own which banks would have capital ga...  

Lessons for the Future from the Financial Crisis by Eric S. Rosengren in Speech before Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association Annual Meeting , December 2009

In a storytelling format, Rosengren explains why it was necessary to “bail out” certain firms – like AIG – and what this story teaches us about avoiding such necessities in the future. Also, why the Federal Reserve took such aggressive action to dramatically expand its balance sheet to address the crisis – and what implications and effects we expe...  

Making Sense of the Subprime Crisis by Kristopher S. Gerardi, Andreas Lehnert, Shane M. Sherland, and Paul S. Willen in Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Working Paper , December 2008

This paper explores the question of whether market participants could have or should have anticipated the large increase in foreclosures that occurred in 2007 and 2008. Most of these foreclosures stem from loans originated in 2005 and 2006, leading many to suspect that lenders originated a large volume of extremely risky loans during this period. ...  

Monetary Policy and the Housing Bubble by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors Speech , January 2010

Speech given at the Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, Atlanta, Georgia

Quick Exits of Subprime Mortgages by Yuliya S. Demyanyk in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , March 2009

All holders of mortgage contracts, regardless of type, have three options: keep their payments current, prepay (usually through refinancing), or default on the loan. The latter two options terminate the loan. The termination rates of subprime mortgages that originated each year from 2001 through 2006 are surprisingly similar: about 20, 50, and 8...  

Regulation and Its Discontents by Kevin Warsh in Board of Governors Speech , February 2010

At the New York Association for Business Economics, New York, New York

Rethinking Capital Regulation by Anil K. Kashyap, Raghuram G. Rajan and Jeremy C. Stein in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Symposium: Maintaining Stability in a Changing Financial System , September 2008

Recent estimates suggest that U.S. banks and investment banks may lose up to $250 billion from their exposure to residential mortgages securities. The resulting depletion of capital has led to unprecedented disruptions in the market for interbank funds and to sharp contractions in credit supply, with adverse consequences for the larger economy. A n...  

The Rise in Mortgage Defaults by Chris Mayer, Karen Pence and Shane M. Sherlund in Federal Reserve Board Finance and Economics Discussion Series , November 2008

The main factors underlying the rise in mortgage defaults appear to be declines in house prices and deteriorated underwriting standards, in particular an increase in loan-to-value ratios and in the share of mortgages with little or no documentation of income.

The Subprime Crisis: Cause, Effect and Consequences by R. Christopher Whalen in SSRN Working Paper , June 2008

Despite the considerable media attention given to the collapse of the market for complex structured assets that contain subprime mortgages, there has been too little discussion of why this crisis occurred. The Subprime Crisis: Cause, Effect and Consequences argues that three basic issues are at the root of the problem, the first of which is an odio...  

Subprime Facts: What (We Think) We Know about the Subprime Crisis and What We Don't by Christopher L. Foote, Kristopher Gerardi, Lorenz Goette and Paul S. Willen in Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Public Policy Discussion Paper , May 2008

Using a variety of datasets, the authors document some basic facts about the current subprime crisis. Many of these facts are applicable to the crisis at a national level, while some illustrate problems relevant only to Massachusetts and New England. The authors conclude by discussing some outstanding questions about which the data, which they beli...  

Subprime Lending and Real Estate Markets by Susan M. Wachter, Andrey D. Pavlov, and Zoltan Pozsar in SSRN Working Paper , December 2008

The recent credit crunch, and liquidity deterioration, in the mortgage market have led to falling house prices and foreclosure levels unprecedented since the Great Depression. A critical factor in the post-2003 house price bubble was the interaction of financial engineering and the deteriorating lending standards in real estate markets, which fed o...  

Subprime Outcomes: Risky Mortgages, Homeownership Experiences, and Foreclosures by Kristopher Gerardi, Adam Hale Shapiro and Paul S. Willen in Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Working Paper , May 2008

This paper provides the first rigorous assessment of the homeownership experiences of subprime borrowers. We consider homeowners who used subprime mortgages to buy their homes, and estimate how often these borrowers end up in foreclosure. In order to evaluate these issues, we analyze homeownership experiences in Massachusetts over the 1989–2007 per...  

The Subprime Turmoil: What's Old, What's New, and What's Next by Charles W. Calomiris in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Symposium: Maintaining Stability in a Changing Financial System" , October 2008

We are currently experiencing a major shock to the financial system, initiated by problems in the subprime market, which spread to securitization products and credit markets more generally. Banks are being asked to increase the amount of risk that they absorb (by moving off-balance sheet assets onto their balance sheets), but losses that the banks...  

U.S. Monetary Policy and the Financial Crisis by James R. Lothian in Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta CenFIS Working Paper , December 2009

This paper reviews U.S. Federal Reserve policy prior to and during the course of the recession that began in December 2007. It compares those policies to monetary policy during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with which this recession has been likened. The paper then discusses what policymakers will need to do to in future to avoid a surge in in...  

Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit by Adam B. Ashcraft and Til Schuermann in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , March 2008

In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the subprime mortgage securitization process and the seven key informational frictions that arise. They discuss the ways that market participants work to minimize these frictions and speculate on how this process broke down. They continue with a complete picture of the subprime borrower and the subp...  

Understanding the Subprime Mortgage Crisis by Yuliya Demyanyk and Otto Van Hemert in SSRN Working Paper , December 2008

In this paper the authors provide evidence that the rise and fall of the subprime mortgage market follows a classic lending boom-bust scenario, in which unsustainable growth leads to the collapse of the market. Problems could have been detected long before the crisis, but they were masked by high house price appreciation between 2003 and 2005.

What to Do about Systemically Important Financial Institutions by James B. Thomson in Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland , August 2009

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is proposing a three-tiered system for regulating systemically important financial institutions. Tier one would include high-risk institutions, such as large, interstate banks and multi-state insurance companies. Tier two would include moderately complex financial institutions, such as larger regional banks. An...  

Where's the Smoking Gun? A Study of Underwriting Standards for US Subprime Mortgages by Geetesh Bhardwaj and Rajdeep Sengupta in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Working Paper , October 2008

The dominant explanation for the meltdown in the US subprime mortgage market is that lending standards dramatically weakened after 2004. Using loan-level data, Bhardwaj and Sengupta examine underwriting standards on the subprime mortgage originations from 1998 to 2007. Contrary to popular belief, the authors find no evidence of a dramatic weakening...  

Have the Fed Liquidity Facilities Had an Effect on Libor? by Jens Christensen in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter , August 2009

In response to turmoil in the interbank lending market, the Federal Reserve inaugurated programs to bolster liquidity beginning in December 2007. Research offers evidence that these liquidity facilities have helped lower the London interbank offered rate, a key market benchmark, significantly from what it otherwise would have been expected to be.

Macroprudential Supervision of Financial Institutions: Lessons from the SCAP by Beverly Hirtle, Til Schuermann, and Kevin Stiroh in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , November 2009

A fundamental conclusion drawn from the recent financial crisis is that the supervision and regulation of financial firms in isolation—a purely microprudential perspective—are not sufficient to maintain financial stability. Rather, a macroprudential perspective, which evaluates and responds to the financial system as a whole, seems necessary, and t...  

Paulson’s Gift by Pietro Veronesi and Luigi Zingales in NBER Working Paper , October 2009

The authors calculate the costs and benefits of the largest ever U.S. Government intervention in the financial sector announced the 2008 Columbus-day weekend. They estimate that this intervention increased the value of banks’ financial claims by $131 billion at a taxpayers’ cost of $25 -$47 billions with a net benefit between $84bn and $107bn. B...  

Quantitative Easing—Uncharted Waters for Monetary Policy by James Bullard in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Regional Economist , January 2010

A discussion of the use of quantiative easing in monetary policy

What the Libor-OIS Spread Says by Daniel L. Thornton in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , May 2009

This paper offers a discussion of the current Libor-OIS rate spread, and what that rate implies for the health of banks.

Possible Solutions / Next Steps

Addressing TBTF by Shrinking Financial Institutions: An Initial Assessment by Gary H. Stern and Ron Feldman in Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis , May 2009

In this essay, the authors review concerns about the "make-them-smaller" reform. They recommend several interim steps to address TBTF that share some similarities with the make-them-smaller approach but do not have the same failings. Specifically, they support (1) imposing special deposit insurance assessments for TBTF banks to allow for spillover-...  

Aiding the Economy: What the Fed Did and Why by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors , November 2010

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke's Op-ed column published in The Washington Post on November 4, 2010

Are All the Sacred Cows Dead? Implications of the Financial Crisis for Macro and Financial Policies by Asli Demirgüç-Kunt and Luis Servén in World Bank Policy Research Working Paper , January 2009

The recent global financial crisis has shaken the confidence of developed and developing countries alike in the very blueprint of financial and macro policies that underlie the western capitalist systems. In an effort to contain the crisis from spreading, the authorities in the US and many European governments have taken unprecedented steps of prov...  

As In the Past, Reform Will Follow Crisis by James Bullard in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Regional Economist , July 2009

Historically, crises have led to significant legislation. The current financial crisis will undoubtedly spur further regulation. Successful regulation should be aimed not at preventing all failures, but rather at establishing a clear and credible process such that if a failure were to occur, it would take place in an orderly fashion and not cause i...  

Asset Bubbles and Systemic Risk by Eric S. Rosengren in Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Speech , March 2010

The Global Interdependence Center's Conference on "Financial Interdependence in the World's Post-Crisis Capital Markets" Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bank Capital: Lessons from the Financial Crisis by Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Enrica Detragiache, Ouarda Merrouche in World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, WPS5473 , November 2010

Using a multi-country panel of banks, the authors study whether better capitalized banks fared better in terms of stock returns during the financial crisis.

Bank Relationships and the Depth of the Current Economic Crisis by Julian Caballero, Christopher Candelaria, and Galina Hale in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter , December 2009

The financial crisis has been worldwide in scope, but the severity has differed from country to country. Those countries whose banks played a more central role in the global financial system, were important intermediaries, or had extensive direct relationships tended to be less seriously affected, as measured by the extent of the decline in their s...  

Buying Troubled Assets by Lucian A. Bebchuk in Harvard Law and Economics Discussion Paper (via SSRN) , April 2009

This paper analyzes how government intervention in the market for banks’ troubled assets is best designed, and also uses this analysis to evaluate the public-private investment program announced by the U.S. government in March 2009. The author begins by presenting the case for using government funds to restart the market for troubled assets. He the...  

Can Monetary Policy Affect GDP Growth? by Yi Wen in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , April 2009

Discusses whether the growth of the monetary base is associated with gaster growth of real output.

Challenges for monetary policy in EMU by Axel Weber in Homer Jones Memorial Lecture , April 2011

Bundesbank President discussed the financial crisis and its lessons for monetary policy in a lecture at the St. Louis Fed.

The Changing Nature of Financial Intermediation and the Financial Crisis of 2007-09 by Tobias Adrian and Hyun Song Shin in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , March 2010

The financial crisis of 2007-09 highlighted the changing role of financial institutions and the growing importance of the “shadow banking system,” which grew out of the securitization of assets and the integration of banking with capital market developments. This trend was most pronounced in the United States, but it also had a profound influence o...  

The Consolidation of Financial Market Regulation: Pros, Cons, and Implications for the United States by Sabrina R. Pellerin, John R. Walter, and Patricia E. Wescott in Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper , May 2009

The U.S. financial system has changed significantly over the last several decades without any major structural changes to the decentralized financial regulatory system, despite numerous proposals. In the past decade, many countries have chosen to consolidate their regulators into a newly formed "single regulator" or have significantly reduced the n...  

Cracks in the System: Repairing the Damaged Global Economy by Olivier Blanchard in International Monetary Fund: Finance and Development , December 2008

The financial crisis has exposed weaknesses in the current regulatory and supervisory frameworks, which have made clear that action is needed to reduce the risk of crises and to address them when they occur.

Credible Alertness Revisited by Jean-Claude Trichet in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Symposium , August 2009

A discussion of three issues facing central banks: the relationship between asset prices and monetary policy; the effectiveness of the standard interest rate instrument; and the design of non-standar monetary policy measures such as the ECB's enhanced credit support.

Credit Derivatives: Systemic Risks and Policy Options by John Kiff, Jennifer Elliott, Elias Kazarian, Jodi Scarlata, and Carolyne Spackman in IMF Working Paper , November 2009

Credit derivative markets are largely unregulated, but calls are increasingly being made for changes to this “hands off” stance, amidst concerns that they helped to fuel the current financial crisis, or that they could be a cause of the next one. The purpose of this paper is to address two basic questions: (i) do credit derivative markets increase ...  

The Crisis by Alan Greenspan in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , April 2010

To prevent a future financial crisis, the primary imperative must be increased regulatory capital and liquidity requirements on banks and significant increases in collateral requirements for globally traded financial products, irrespective of the financial institutions making the trades, Greenspan says. He offers his views about regulatory reform,...  

Emerging from the Crisis: Where Do We Stand? by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors Speech , November 2010

Speech by Federal Reserve Chairman at the Sixth European Central Bank Central Banking Conference, Frankfurt, Germany

The Fed at a Crossroads by James Bullard in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Speech , March 2010

Remarks at St. Cloud State University's 48th annual Winter Institute

Fed Confronts Financial Crisis by Expanding Its Role as Lender of Last Resort by John V. Duca, Danielle DiMartino and Jessica J. Renier in Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Economic Letter , February 2009

The unprecedented actions the Fed has taken to combat the financial crisis have had some success in unclogging the economy's financial arteries, according to this article.

Federal Reserve Liquidity Programs: An Update by Niel Willardson and LuAnne Pederson in The Region (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis) , June 2010

A review of the size, status and results of the Fed's programs to cope with crisis

The Federal Reserve's Asset Purchase Program by Janet Yellen in Speech at the The Brimmer Policy Forum, Allied Social Science Associations Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado , January 2011

Yellen discusses the rationale for the decision by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in November 2010 to initiate a new program of asset purchases, and addresses questions (FAQs) regarding the program's economic and financial effects both in the U.S. and abroad.

The Federal Reserve's Liquidity Facilities by William C. Dudley in Speech , April 2009

Remarks at the Vanderbilt University Conference on Financial Markets and Financial Policy Honoring Dewey Daane, Nashville, Tennessee

The Federal Reserve's Policy Actions during the Financial Crisis and Lessons for the Future by Donald L. Kohn in Board of Governors Speech , May 2010

Speech at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

The Financial Crisis and the Recession: What is Happening and What the Government Should Do by Robert E. Hall and Susan E. Woodward

Woodward and Hall frequently update a document on the crisis and recession. The highlights of the document are: Low interest rates in the early part of the decade were responsible monetary policy to head off deflation, not an irresponsible contribution to a housing price bubble. The most important fact about the economy today is the collapse of s...  

The Financial Crisis of 2008: What Needs to Happen after TARP by Campbell R. Harvey in Duke University Working Paper , October 2008

Harvey argues that the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP), signed into law on October 3, 2008, is an insufficient policy initiative to end the current credit crisis. In addition to modifications in implementing the program, other policy initiatives are necessary. Harvey sets forth several proposals to help end the crisis.

Fiscal Responsibility and Global Rebalancing by Janet L. Yellen in Federal Reserve Board of Governors , December 2010

Speech by Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Vice Chair at the Committee for Economic Development 2010 International Counterparts Conference, New York, New York .

The Future of Securities Regulation by Luigi Zingales in University of Chicago Working Paper , January 2009

The U.S. system of securities law was designed more than 70 years ago to regain investors’ trust after a major financial crisis. Today we face a similar problem. But while in the 1930s the prevailing perception was that investors had been defrauded by offerings of dubious quality securities, in the new millennium, investors’ perception is that they...  

The High Cost of Exceptionally Low Rates by Thomas M. Hoenig in Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City , June 2010

Speech at Bartlesville Federal Reserve Forum

Implementing a Macroprudential Approach to Supervision and Regulation by Ben S. Bernanke in Federal Reserve Board of Governors Speech , May 2011

Speech at the 47th Annual Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, Chicago, Illinois

Implications of the Financial Crisis for Economics by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors Speech , September 2010

Speech at the Conference Co-sponsored by the Center for Economic Policy Studies and the Bendheim Center for Finance, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

Implications of the Financial Crisis for Potential Growth: Past, Present, and Future by Charles Steindel in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , November 2009

The scale of the recent collapse in asset values and the magnitude of the recession suggest that activities connected to the increase in values over the 2002-07 period—notably, expansion of the financial markets, homebuilding, and real estate—were overstated. If this is true, aggregate U.S. economic growth would have been overstated, implying that ...  

Improving the International Monetary and Financial System by Janet L. Yellen in Speech at the Banque de France International Symposium, Paris, France , March 2011

In this speech Yellen contributes her thoughts on steps we can take to improve our international economic order. In the case of the recent global financial crisis and recession, she apportions responsibility to inadequacies in both the monetary and financial systems.

It's Greek to Me by Kevin Warsh in Board of Governors Speech , June 2010

At the Atlanta Rotary Club, Atlanta, Georgia

The Lack of an Empirical Rationale for a Revival of Discretionary Fiscal Policy by John B. Taylor in AEA Presentation Paper , January 2009

Despite this widespread agreement of a decade ago, there has recently been a dramatic revival of interest in discretionary fiscal policy. The purpose of this paper is to review the empirical evidence during the past decade and determine whether it calls for such a revival. Taylor finds that it does not.

The macroeconomics of financial crises: How risk premiums, liquidity traps and perfect traps affect policy options by Manfred Gärtner und Florian Jung in University of St. Gallen Discussion Paper , July 2009

The paper shows that structural models of the IS-LM and Mundell-Fleming variety have a lot to tell about the macroeconomics of the current global crisis. In addition to demonstrating how the emergence of risk premiums in money and capital markets may drive economies into recessions, it shows the following: (1) Liquidity traps may occur not only whe...  

Monetary Policy Research and the Financial Crisis: Strengths and Shortcomings by Donald L. Kohn in Speech, Board of Governors , October 2009

Kohn, in his speech, asks "What aspects of the existing literature in monetary economics have been particularly helpful in formulating the course of monetary policy since the onset of the financial crisis? Second, what are the gaps in this literature that have become particularly evident since the onset of the financial crisis and, therefore, would...  

Monetary Policy Stance: The View from Consumption Spending by William T. Gavin in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , October 2009

The author suggests that we should expect a third business cycle in succession in which the real federal funds rate reaches its trough well after the economy begins to recover

Mortgage Choice and the Pricing of Fixed-Rate and Adjustable-Rate Mortgages by John Krainer in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter , February 2010

In the United States throughout 2009, the share of adjustable-rate mortgages among total mortgage originations was very low, apparently reflecting the attractive pricing of fixed-rate mortgages relative to ARMs. Government policy could have changed the relative attractiveness of the fixed-rate mortgages and ARMs, thereby shifting the market share o...  

Negating the Inflation Potential of the Fed’s Lending Programs by Daniel L. Thornton in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , July 2009

The Term Auction Facility (TAF), instituted in December 2007, was the first in a series of Fed lending facilities designed to allocate credit (and thus liquidity) to certain institutions and markets. The most recent of these lending facilities is the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), which began operation in March 2009. Initiall...  

The New Shape of the Economic and the Financial Governance in the EU by Olli Rehn in Institute of International Finance , October 2010

Keynote Speech by EU Economic & Monetary Affairs Commissioner at The Annual Meeting Institute of International Finance

On the Record with Bernanke in PBS NewsHour Forum , July 2009

At a forum in Kansas City, Mo., Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke discussed the central bank's actions in handling the economic crisis, saying he did not want to be the Fed chief who "presided over the second Great Depression." Here is the full transcript of the forum, which was moderated by Jim Lehrer.

Paradise Lost: Addressing ‘Too Big to Fail’ (With Reference to John Milton and Irving Kristol) by Richard W. FIsher in Remarks before the Cato Institute’s 27th Annual Monetary Conference , November 2009

"In the words of Milton, I would say that regulation should be designed to enable financial institutions to be 'sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.'"

A Plan for Addressing the Financial Crisis by Lucian A. Bebchuk in Harvard Law School Working Paper , September 2008

This paper critiques the proposed emergency legislation for spending $700 billion on purchasing financial firms’ troubled assets to address the 2008 financial crisis. It also puts forward an alternative for advancing the two goals of the proposed legislation – restoring stability to the financial markets and protecting taxpayers.

Preventing Future Crises by Noel Sacasa in International Monetary Fund: Finance and Development , December 2008

This article takes a look at substantive issues in the current debates on reforming the financial sector. The first section identifies crucial weaknesses that the reforms need to address, and the second outlines key areas for policy action.

The Public Policy Case for a Role for the Federal Reserve in Bank Supervision and Regulation by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors , January 2010

The Board's views on the importance of the Federal Reserve's continued role in bank supervision and regulation. The document discusses (1) how the expertise and information that the Federal Reserve develops in the making of monetary policy enable it to make a unique contribution to an effective regulatory regime, especially in the context of a more...  

Rebalancing the Global Recovery by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors , November 2010

Speech by the Federal Reserve Chairman at the Sixth European Central Bank Central Banking Conference, Frankfurt, Germany

Regulating Systemic Risk by Governor Daniel K. Tarullo in Speech at the 2011 Credit Markets Symposium, Charlotte, North Carolina , March 2011

This speech addresses the implementation of the new statutory regime for special supervision and regulation of financial institutions whose stress or failure could pose a risk to financial stability.

The Regulatory Response to the Financial Crisis: An Early Assessment by Jeffrey M. Lacker in The Institute for International Economic Policy and the International Monetary Fund Institute , May 2010

Assessment of the regulatory response to this crisis will depend predominantly on how well it clarifies and places discernable boundaries around the federal financial safety net.

Remarks on "The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System" by Ben S. Bernanke in Board of Governors Speech , June 2010

At the Squam Lake Conference, New York, New York

Report on the Lessons Learned from the Financial Ccrisis with Regard to the Functioning of European Financial Market Infrastructures by European Central Bank in European Central Bank , April 2010

This report considers issues relating to the impact of the financial crisis on the functioning of European financial market infrastructures (FMIs), including systemically important payment systems, central counter parties, and securities settlement systems.

Second Chances: Subprime Mortgage Modification and Re-Default by Andrew Haughwout, Ebiere Okah, and Joseph Tracy in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports , December 2009

Mortgage modifications have become an important component of public interventions designed to reduce foreclosures. In this paper, we examine how the structure of a mortgage modification affects the likelihood of the modified mortgage re-defaulting over the next year. Using data on subprime modifications that precede the government’s Home Affordable...  

Securitization Markets and Central Banking: An Evaluation of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility by Sean Campbell, Daniel Covitz, William Nelson, and Karen Pence in Finance & Economic Discussion Series, #2011-16 , January 2011

This working paper studies the effects of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility and finds that it lowered interest rate spreads for some categories of asset-backed securities but had little impact on the pricing of individual securities.

Seeking Stability: What's Next for Banking Regulation? by Simona E. Cociuba in Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Economic Letter , April 2009

Cociuba reviews the Basel I regulatory framework, and then considers some of the improvements and shortcomings of Basel II. Cociuba then presents the example of Northern Rock to illustrate the shortcomings of Basel I, before considering what the future of bank regulation should look like.

Still More Lessons from the Crisis by William C. Dudley in Federal Reserve Bank of New York Speech , December 2009

Remarks at the Columbia University World Leaders Forum, New York, New York

The Success of the CPFF? by Richard G. Anderson in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , April 2009

Describes the Commercial Paper Funding Facility and its effect on the availability of commercial credit.

Uncertainty About When the Fed Will Raise Interest Rates by Michael W. McCracken in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , June 2009

In response to the current economic crisis, the Federal Reserve has reduced its federal funds rate (FFR) target to zero. With the FFR at zero and a negative rate practically infeasible, the Fed is now in largely uncharted territory when conducting monetary policy. Other types of policies are now the focus of attention.

What's Under the TARP? by Craig P. Aubuchon in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses , April 2009

This article provides an outline of the TARP plan and the Financial Stability Plan.

Will Regulatory Reform Prevent Future Crises? by James Bullard in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Speech , February 2010

Remarks at CFA Virginia Society, Richmond, Virginia

Will the U.S. Bank Recapitalization Succeed? Lessons from Japan by Takeo Hoshi and Anil K. Kashyap in NBER Working Paper , December 2008

The U.S. government is using a variety of tools to try to rehabilitate the U.S. banking industry. The two principal policy levers discussed so far are employing asset managers to buy toxic real estate securities and making bank equity purchases. Japan used both of these strategies to combat its banking problems. There are also a surprising number o...  

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How to deal with money struggles during a financial crisis

Jannese Torres-Rodriguez

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This story comes from Life Kit , NPR's podcast to help make life better — covering everything from exercise to raising kids to making friends. For more, sign up for the newsletter .

Navigating a financial crisis can be overwhelming. How do you decide what expenses should be prioritized? Should you tap into your retirement accounts? What about asking friends or family for financial help? Should you apply for a payday loan?

The first step of creating your emergency plan is understanding your essential needs. "Traditionally, financial experts say, 'Try to pay all your bills, pay them on time.' And we just drill that into people's heads until they lose their job." says personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary."When you don't have enough income, you just pay for what you need, a roof over your head and food on a table."

Her new book, What To Do With Your Money When Crisis Hits: A Survival Guide , is an emergency field guide for your money. It's intended to help you tackle the issues you'd likely face in the event of a job or income loss, which many people experienced during the ongoing pandemic.

"There are plenty of great personal finance books out there," says Singletary. "But when you're in the middle of a crisis, when you're trying to figure out what to pay, you're not going to grab a book on retirement savings and read it, you know, 200 pages of that."

In the book, Singletary also explains her approach to managing money like she's in a perpetual recession. It's not so much about living in fear but more about being prepared to face financial crises at all times. "I have to always be prepared for the worst and hope for the best," she says.

Life Kit spoke with Singletary about her new book and advice on navigating financial crises. Highlights from our conversation are below, edited for brevity and clarity.

Jannese Torres-Rodriguez: One of the first places that people might turn to for financial support is friends and family. When is the right time to ask for a loan versus a financial gift?

Michelle Singletary: There is never a right time to ask for a loan. If you're in a financial crisis, go to the people who love you and care for you and say, "I've lost my job. I don't know when I can pay you back. I don't want to make a promise that I'm going to break and hurt our relationship." I think you, people will be surprised at the number of folks in their life that would be absolutely willing to help.

Emotions, Money, And What It Means To Be 'Financially Whole'

What is the best way to respond when someone asks you for financial help?

If you find yourself on this side of the conversation, relieve people of that need to pay you back. Whenever anybody approaches me, I say right away, "this is not a loan." If I write them a check, I write on the memo line in capital letters, NOT A LOAN. Just as a reminder to them that it's OK that you came to me. I had the resources. I wouldn't give you what I can't afford. I release them of that obligation and we never speak about it again. If you're going to help someone, don't keep bringing it up, because if you do, the person feels like they have to pay you back. So just don't say anything.

If You're Drowning In Debt, There's A Way Out

People might be tempted to turn to predatory lending options like payday loans or title loans. Why should we avoid these at all costs?

Payday loans are loans that are given to people based on their next paycheck. Title loans use your vehicle's title as collateral to guarantee the loan. What happens in that situation is say you've got a car that's worth $5,000 and you borrow $500, but you default on that? Now they take your $5,000 for that $500 loan.

Title loans are particularly dangerous for two reasons. One, when you look at the fees and you annualize those fees and turn them into an interest rate, you will see that those fees translate to interest rates of anywhere from 300 percent to 1000 percent. If you were in trouble and someone said, "Hey, I'm going to lend you money at 300 percent," you wouldn't do it. Two, if you're in a jam and you don't have enough money now, you're pledging money from your next paycheck, you're already behind. How are you going to catch up? Studies show that many people end up in a debt cycle with these loans.

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What are your thoughts on taking 401k loans or early withdrawals from your retirement accounts in order to make ends meet?

In the book, I talk about where to go before you reach that point. But if you've tapped everybody that you could or there is nobody to tap, if you have no savings, then that is a source of money that you can tap. It's not ideal. I'd hope and pray that you don't have to do it. But if you do, go ahead and do it, because sometimes you gotta do what you got to do. Now, don't take a lot of the money. Take it little by little as you need it.

Can you walk us through the order of succession when it comes to who you should be talking to, what resources you should be accessing when you're in a financial crisis?

First, go through all of your savings — all of it. That's why it's there. Then, go to friends and family and ask them to help you out. Many churches, synagogues and religious organizations have funds that they set aside for members in need. Tap into state and federal funds, apply for unemployment benefits if necessary, apply for welfare, Medicaid. Use those resources. That's why they're there. If none of that is available, then you can tap your retirement funds. It's going to cost you. But it's there.

Spend Savvier, Save Smarter: 5 Tips To Stop Stress-Spending

I think there's a lot of confusion around whether an emergency fund is enough as far as savings go. How many types of savings accounts should people have in order to be able to adequately deal with emergencies?

I like to have my money in different savings "pots." It is a way to organize my savings and also prevent me from tapping money that I shouldn't be tapping. I have something called a "Life happens pot," which is different from the emergency fund. "Life happens" is the pot of money for when life happens, like your car breaks down. That's the pot that you reach for in those situations, because a lot of times, people don't have the emergency funds when they get in a crisis because they've been dipping into it.

People are always asking me, "I've got all this money, but it just is not earning anything." That's not that money's purpose. Don't worry about that. Its job is to be there risk-free. I make sure that I'm investing and getting growth in my other "pots" of money like my retirement account and my children's college fund.

How To Save For Your Kid's College Education

What are common financial scams that we should look out for?

In many communities, particularly minority communities, there are Ponzi and pyramid schemes like the sou-sou, which is a savings technique that many immigrants use where people pool their money and somebody gets the pot of savings every month. Now, people have used that to create these pyramid schemes where, say, you put in five hundred and they promise you four thousand dollars. If they say "I can guarantee you return," you are about to be scammed. Scammers know that people feel like they're behind the curve. They know that people are anxious to grow their money. They know that people are behind in savings. And so they're eager to find a quick fix, a quick way to make money. And they play on that. They play on your trust.

It's A Good Time To Save More. Here's How

Do you have any final words of advice?

I don't want you to feel guilty. I want you to feel energized. I want you to feel motivated. Don't just say, "Oh, that's right," and then go back and do the same thing. Take it slow. I'm telling you a whole bunch of stuff that requires a lot of money and discipline. Once you develop that habit, when you start to make money or you get back on track, then it'll become easier, because you have more money at hand. All of us will encounter some sort of financial emergency. And if you're prepared next time around, you can find yourself in a much better situation.

The audio portion of this episode was produced by Clare Marie Schneider. Engineering support was provided by Patrick Murray.

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• Life Kit: Money