1.0 The Global Financial Crisis and Its Impact The recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) initially began with the collapse of credits and financial markets, which caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US in 2007. The sub-prime mortgages were given to high-risk lenders (with bad credit history) who were in danger of defaulting, which eventually caused a global credit crunch, where the banks were unwilling to lend to each other. In October 2008, the collapse of the major financial institutions and the crash of stock markets marked the peak of this global economic slowdown (Euromonitor International, 2008). Although the origin of the GFC might have been the housing and financial crisis in the US, it affected both developed and developing countries in a devastating way. More specifically, the crisis has destroyed global financial systems and government budges, strike the confident and security of financial markets. It was universally recognized the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s (Ciro, 2012). Before the financial crisis, the increasing food and oil prices had affected the non-producers and because of the developed economies are more integrated within the global financial systems and markets, they were the worst affected by the GFC in the short term. Developing countries were looking more optimistic in the short term as their economies were not as integrated into the global financial market system. Nevertheless, the escalated impact of the crisis did affect the real economy of developing countries especially on the export-orientated nations. As the demand of goods and services has been weakening from the developed countries, the output of manufacturing or services companies decreas... ... middle of paper ... ...ennsylvania. Retrieved from http://www.bis.org/review/r090522d.pdf Ashworth, J. (2013). Quantitative Easing by the Major Western Central Banks During the Global Financial Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2013_Q000016#header Smaghi, L. (2009, Aprl 28). Conventional And Unconventional Monetary Policy. Speech at the International Centre for Monetary and Banking Studies (ICMB), Geneva. Retrieved from http://www.bis.org/review/r090429e.pdf IMF Staff Position Note. (2009, March 6). The Case for Global Fiscal Stimulus. Retrieved from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/spn/2009/spn0903.pdf Bernanke, B. (2009, January 13). The Crisis and the Policy Response. Speech at the Stamp Lecture, London School of Economic, London, England. Retrieved from http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20090113a.htm
The financial crisis of 2007–2008 is considered by many economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. The crisis led to a series of events including: the 2008–2012 global recessions and the European sovereign-debt crisis. The reasons of this financial crisis are argued by economists. The performance of the Federal Reserve becomes a focal point in this argument.
Quantitative easing (or just ‘QE”) is a program carried out by the US central bank, otherwise known as the Federal Reserve. It is an unconventional program designed to artificially stimulate markets in recessionary periods via printing new money into existence to buy up particular monetary instruments. Purchasing these instruments works to push the interest rates large banks pay the Fed down to nearly zero in order to loosen up credit (currently 0.25%), as well as push down yield rates on US treasury bonds in order to keep the interest on the US National debt feasible. Since the housing collapse of 2008 (otherwise known as the ‘Great Recession’) the Fed has been purchasing up these toxic mortgage backed securities and...
It can be argued that the economic hardships of the great recession began when interest rates were lowered by the Federal Reserve. This caused a bubble in the housing market. Housing prices plummeted, home prices plummeted, then thousands of borrowers could no longer afford to pay on their loans (Koba, 2011). The bubble forced banks to give out homes loans with unreasonably high risk rates. The response of the banks caused a decline in the amount of houses purchased and “a crisis involving mortgage loans and the financial securities built on them” (McConnell, 2012 p.479). The effect on the economy was catastrophic and caused a “pandemic” of foreclosures that effected tens of thousands home owners across the U.S. (Scaliger, 2013). The debt burden eventually became unsustainable and the U.S. crisis deepened as the long-term effect on bank loans would affect not only the housing market, but also the job market.
The U.S. financial crisis of 2007–2008 is considered one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It almost made large financial institutions collapse and stock markets declined in a dramatic way around the world. The consumer wealth declined in trillions of U.S. dollars and played a significant part in the failure of key businesses and declines in economic activities. All these factors led to the 2007–2008 global recession and played a major role in contributing to the European sovereign-debt crisis.
With the emergence of the subprime meltdown, the United States economy was beginning to spiral into a recession in 2007. A downturn in the U.S. housing market turned into a global financial crisis. The downturn appeared in the middle of 2007 and the effects were felt in September of 2008. As indicated by Sharma (2009), “the months of August and September 2008 will be long remembered as the economic tsunami on Wall Street” (p.171). The mortgage finance industry collapsed and several government backed enterprises were in over their heads with massive amounts of defaulted loans. The subprime mortgage issue turned into an economic nightmare for the entire globe. Many backed mortgages were with overseas investor hoping to capitalize on the fast growing mortgage indu...
Weiss, M.A. (2009) ‘The Global Financial Crisis: The Role of the International Monetary Fund’, CRS Report for Congress.
CARMASSI, J., GROS, D. and MICOSSI, S. (2009), The Global Financial Crisis: Causes and Cures. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 47: 977–996. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-5965.2009.02031.x
...ischer, Stanley. "The Asian Crisis: A View from the IMF." International Monetary Fund. Washington, D.C.: 22 Jan 1998. 30 Nov 2001 <http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/1998/012298.htm>.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created as a result of the Bretton Woods Conference. Both provide assistance to countries suffering economically. While the IMF is a cooperative institution that aims to create an organized global system of payments and receipts, the World Bank is an institution that aims to help developing countries (Driscoll 1). Both play a part in the economies of struggling nations with the goal of reducing their burden and helping them to survive in the global economic system. Unfortunately, in many cases their practices within developing nations have been seen to create more harm than good. This is possibly because both institutions use a one size fits all approach when aiding countries rather than gaining a deep understanding of each country they are involved in and catering their approach as a result. In this paper I will examine the practices of the IMF and World Bank in developing nations that have led to failure and the effects the policies had on these countries.
In 2008, the world experienced a tremendous financial crisis which is rooted from the U.S housing market. Moreover, it is considered by many economists as one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression in 1930s. After bringing a huge effect on the U.S economy, the financial crisis expanded to Europe and the rest of the world. It ruined economies, crumble financial corporations and impoverished individual lives. For example, the financial crisis has resulted in the collapse of massive financial institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG. These collapses not only influenced own countries but also international scale. Hence, the intervention of governments by changing and expanding the monetary and fiscal policy or giving bailout is needed in order to eliminate and control enormous effects of the financial crisis.
Liikanen, E. (2013). The economic crisis and the evolving role of central banks. BIS. Retrieved from http://www.bis.org/review/r131128c.htm.
Rajan discusses three primary fault lines in the financial sector; the first being the domestic political stresses, especially in the United States. Starting in 1991, Rajan argues that recessions have mostly been “jobless” where there are more jobs being lost than created and inefficient jobs are being lost due to technology increase. Policymakers look for a quick fix to unemployment and offer easy solutions such as lower interest rates, promote homeownership instead of fixing the root of the cause (improving education and retraining employees). Coupled with a weak safety net, there is more jobless anxiety and eventua...
The 2008-09 global financial crisis is a familiar topic in this decades to understanding its implications for future. Nowadays, the world faced much more than a financial crisis. In addition, side effects of the financial crisis must be half of a discussion in order to understand holistically about the consequences that led to the global financial crisis and spread the effect around the world. The 2008-09 crisis in general changed the world’s economic and financial landscape as a whole. In order to understanding this issues as a whole, there is the two basic types of costs for investors and consumers: economic costs and financial costs. Both are interrelated each other and tend influence each other. The world economy was faced by financial and its deepest downturn in decades and the first simultaneously recession in the industrial world since the first oil crisis of 1973-74. The International Monetary Fund significantly reduces its forecasts for global 2009 real growth from 2.2 percent to 0.5 percent, as the macroeconomic implications of the financial crisis became better understood, and as the depth of the financial crisis itself became apparent,. This reduction occurred only three months after the IMF’s earlier forecast. At that time, many industrialized countries faced by their financial crisis. This statement was state in a book Global Financial Crisis: Impact and Solutions by Paolo Savona, he said, “ . . . the industrialized countries were the hit hardest with the forecasts of their real growth dropping to a declined of 2 percent down from the October estimate of a modest 0.5 percent. Hardest hit was the United States, where growth was expected to declined by 1.6 percent from the earlier estimate zero...” (Paolo Savona, 201...
Warwick J. McKibbin, and Andrew Stoeckel. “The Global Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences.” Lowy Institute for International Policy 2.09 (2009): 1. PDF file.
Due to developing countries not being able to make any trades, countries then begin to see a dramatic change in the economy. The article “The Financial and Economic Crisis and Developing Countries” by Bruno Gurtner, explained the main causes of why developing countries are still going through the financial crisis phase. Bruno Gurtner simply states, “the crisis was transmitted primarily by trade and financial flows forcing millions back into poverty” (Gurtner, 2008). However, Gurtner discovered, since the financial crisis has been hitting developing countries hard, it begins to cause a regression in economic growth in those poor countries. Gurtner found that “Marco-economically the crisis manifested…in trade and payment balances, dwindling currency reserves, currency devaluations, increasing rates of inflation, higher indebtedness and soaring public budget deficits” (Gurtner, 2008). Although, Gurtner have his own beliefs about how the financial crisis effects the developing countries, however, in the article “Financial Crises: Explanations, Types, and Implications” Stijn Claessens and Ayhan Kose have different beliefs about financial crisis and developing countries. Claessens and Kose simply explain “financial crisis is often associated with…substantial changes in credit volume and asset prices; severe disruptions in financial intermediation and the supply of external financing to various actors in the