Financial Crisis of 2008–2011

Starting in 2007, accelerating to a peak in 2008 that almost crippled the entire financial system and economy of the United States, and with effects that linger to this day, the United States experienced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The crisis originated in the housing sector and grew out of long-term governmental policies, the industrial organization of housing finance, the behavior of financial institutions, and the actions of millions of individuals. These sources helped propel home prices in the United States to levels well beyond their true value and allowed and encouraged homeowners to assume home mortgages that were vastly beyond their capacity to repay.

These excessively high home prices and mortgage obligations arose in large part because financial institutions ...