Day 13 — The Great Recession

The 2008 financial crash was caused by a huge number of vulnerabilities in the global, and especially American, financial housing system. One of the primary causes of the crash was the subprime mortgage crisis, due to the collapse of housing prices after irresponsible lending practices by many banks, causing a mass default crisis. This spread out from the housing market, causing a mass default crisis and taking many banks under. In America, these were followed by mass bailouts from taxpayer money (which were payed out with interest) and an aggressive model of fiscal spending. The UK, however, took the opposite approach, with a policy of austerity, which included mass cut backs on public programs and funding to public services such as the NHS. This policy has been widely criticised and has led to a slower recovery than the USA.