Description
Read the chapter “Meltdown 2008” from the red covered book “A History of The United States In Five Crashes” by Scott Nations.
Write about within the chapter the various political factors, economic factors, misunderstood financial contraptions, and psychological factors.
Here is a general outline-
1) Write about the Political Factors within the chapter mainly on pages 187-190 (Clinton Housing Policies) and George Bush’s housing policies on pages 200-201. Page 203 Truth in Lending Act of 1968 and HOEPA. Creation of Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) page 228-230. Page 243 does an excellent job of summing up the problem as a lack of regulation.
2.) Economic Factors: Rating agencies on pages 185,186,209-211.
3.) Misunderstood Financial Contraptions: These are scattered throughout the text, but you can find nice summaries on pages 212-214. Most important to understand is the mortgage-backed security and the subprime mortgage crisis (Don’t feel the need to mention CDOs)
4.) Psychological: Greed of corporations like AIG FP (192, 206) Greed from mortgage companies and the companies who were selling swaps on mortgage-backed securities (pages 201-203) (Countrywide Financial as well). GREED of investment banks p 219-221
5.) Fed policy under Alan Greenspan (pages 197–>) (pages 204-205)
6.) Once again, LEVERAGE (page 217)