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This document encompasses the reasons behind the failure of the American banking system, and how it lead to a financial catastrophe around the world. It discusses the causes of the crisis, the impact they had on market fundamentals, and what steps have been initiated by the Govt. and the Fed to restore the banking system stability.
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avail these easy loans. The housing bubble experienced its pinnacle in 2005-06, which was the main indicator that the bubble would collapse in a similar manner to the Dot Com era. Default rates on sub prime and adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) began to increase quickly as the market witnessed growth of consumers. This was augmented by the rise in prices of the housing sector due to demand pressures. Thus banks were successfully convincing customers to engage in credit facilities as the market prices seemed to show substantial hikes in value. Consumers were so busy buying houses that they missed the interest charge they would have to bear over the years. The structure of such contracts was that the first 2 years would be a fixed, flat rate, after which the rate mechanism would be ARM. Thus banks succeeded in creating a large pool of assets associated with high risk profiles. As Malhar Nabar from Wellesley College points out in his article US Policy Response to the Financial Crisis, The lending boom and the increase in house prices that it supported resulted from a combination of factors a buildup of liquidity in financial markets and a subsequent search for yield in a low interest rate environment, the erosion of lending standards, and the deterioration in the metrics used by creditrating agencies to rate the financial securities involved.
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These included investors from the US, the EU and some parts of Asia. Extremely complex derivatives were employed to mask the risk profiles of the assets, such as credit default swaps. Off-balance sheet items were increasing, known as SPVs or Special Purpose Vehicles where bad loans and defaulting assets were parked as a separate entity so that the parent company seemed to be doing prosperously. When the interest rates in the US were raised in 2007, the consumers using the ARM mechanism started to default on payments. As the delinquency ratio increased for the market, the banks that had given the loans started charging more risk premium. This in turn increased the defaults. At the same time, the housing bubble came crashing down and prices of real estate fell drastically. Customers who planned to use the house they had loaned to repay the debt in case of defaults now realized that their houses had lost a significant proportion of its value. With the asset now worthless and the debt obligation constantly rising, the housing bubble became a nightmare for the consumers. On the other hand, the institutional investors who had purchased the CDOs and MBSs now realized that theyre money had eroded over night. Due to this revaluation of the asset value, Bear Stearns, a Financial Powerhouse, lost approximately $5 billion through the erosion of the existing value of its assets. This is just one of the many firms which took the brunt of this collapse. As the losses began to sink in and liquidity became short, these institutions starting pulling their money out from various other investments they had made around the world. This triggered a freefall of indices on a global scale including in Japan, UK, EU etc. and not to mention on its own turf like the Dow Jones.
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cycle. Without being able to roll over their obligations, they were slowly beginning to dwindle. The Federal Reserve took immediate action by extending insurance for money market accounts via temporary guarantees. They also initiated programs by which the FED would buy commercial paper from these corporations. The shadow banking industry was perhaps the one hit the hardest. Shadow Banking refers to financial institutions which do not have a depository base, but engage in investment transactions. They had grown to a substantial size up till 2007, almost equal to the conventional banking sector in terms of importance. Without the ability to obtain investor funds in exchange for most types of mortgage-backed securities or asset-backed commercial paper, investment banks and other entities in the shadow banking system could not provide funds to mortgage firms and other corporations. The liquidity crunch crippled the shadow banking sector, and many reputable firms suffered dire consequences. Several major institutions which failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover included Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, and AIG.
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Open Market Committee opted to further enhance this exposure by purchasing an additional $750 billion worth of GSEs. The Fed also developed lending mechanisms to lend directly to banks and non-bank institutions, against specific types of collateral of varying credit quality. The Govt. also created stimulus packages to jumpstart the business cycle and get the economy back into gear. In 2008, the Govt. issued income tax rebates worth $168 billion directly to tax payers. However higher fuel and food costs negated the desired effect this stimulus would have had. In 2009, the U.S. Govt. passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion stimulus package with a broad spectrum of spending and tax cuts. This was by far the largest bailout in the history of financial debacles. 10% of this amount was directed towards the assistance of the struggling homeowners. The Govt also initiated the Troubled Assets Relief Program, under which banks would be provided funding in exchange for dividend paying Preferred stock. Apart from providing a stimulus package, the Govt. also provided bail out packages to some large corporations, while approved the mergers of others. The decline in the value of mortgagebacked securities which these corporations held lead to their insolvency, the same as bank runs when investors pulled funds from them, or inability to secure new funding in the credit markets. These firms had typically leveraged themselves and invested large sums of money relative to their cash or equity capital. This increased their susceptibility to unanticipated credit market disruptions. Some prominent names that were sold off to other corporations include Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns, while others who were bailed out by the Govt include Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
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Conclusion
While the measures taken by the Fed and Treasury may seem at first glance to be ad hoc, with the authorities appearing to selectively intervene on an institution by institution basis, it is possible to trace out an underlying coherence to the strategy pursued. Ultimately, there is no unique template for dealing with a financial crisis of this magnitude. The crisis has now moved on from the US to the European Union, with Greece being the first to face the debt crisis, followed by other members including Spain, Ireland, and Portugal etc. The losses have mounted into trillions of dollars with the IMF estimations that the US has witnessed 60% of the losses it should, while the EU is still at 40%. The debt market has started taking its toll on other markets
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including currency, futures, forwards etc. what remains to be seen is a structured approach to ensure that the worst that has passed will not be repeated.
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References Nabar, Malhar, December 16 2008, Rewriting the rule rook: The US policy response to the financial crisis 2007-08, Retrieved from: http://www.wellesley.edu/Economics/Nabar/__files/response_121608.pdf Butler, Willem H., December 2007, Lessons from the financial crisis 2007, retrieved from: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/policyinsights/PolicyInsight18.pdf Allayannis, Yiorgos, July 07 2009, The financial crisis of 2007-2009: The road to systemic risk, Retrieved from http://hbr.org/product/the-financial-crisis-of-2007-2009-the-road-to-syst/an/UV2551PDF-ENG Conklin, David W., June 09 2008, The 2007-2008 Financial Crisis: Causes, impacts and the need for new regulations, Retrieved from: http://hbr.org/product/the-2007-2008-financial-crisis-causes-impacts-and-/an/908N14PDF-ENG Rampell, Catherine, January 03 2010, Lax Oversight Caused Crisis, Bernanke Says, Retrieved from : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/business/economy/04fed.html
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Lazzaro, Joseph, November 4 2010, Bernanke on the Financial Crisis: Interventions Prevented
Cataclysm, Retrieved from:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/bernanke-on-the-financial-crisis-interventionsprevented-catacl/19433654/