Great Recession/Timelines
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2002-2007 US housing boom and bust
- The average price of a US house increased by about 70% between 2000 and 2006 [1] and then fell to 6.5% below the 2006 peak by July 2007[2].
- The subprime mortgage crisis - including losses from mortgage defaults by the Bear Stearns bank's hedge funds [3] and the bankruptcy of the American Home Mortgage Corporation [4]..
2007-2009 International financial panic
- August 9 2007: The French bank BNP Paribas freezes its funds because it is unable to value their mortgage-backed assets. [5]
- September 12 2008 The Lehman Brothers investment bank becomes bankrupt[6][7] with losses of up to $160 billion to holders of its unsecured bonds prompting a sudden loss of confidence in money market funds and the onset of a credit crunch.
2008-2009 The policy response
Financial policy
- The UK offers unlimited support to all UK banks by capital support, equity purchase and lending guarantees [8] [9], and similar action is agreed by European Union leaders [10] and the US President[11]and there are rescues of individual banks in Europe [12][13] [14][15] and the United States [16].
Monetary policy
- A coordinated discount rate cut of half per cent by the central banks of the United States, Europe, China, Britain, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland [17](in October) followed by progressive reductions to reach 1/4 per cent in the United States[18]. (December), 1/2 per cent in the United Kingdom [19] (March) and 1 per cent in the Eurozone[20] (May)
- Quantitative easing (or "credit easing" in the case of the United States) is introduced by the central banks of the United States[21][22][23] (in December), the United Kingdom[24] (in January) and the Eurozone[25] (in May).
Fiscal policy
- November. The first G20 summit of leaders of the Group of Twenty countries agree to take expansionary fiscal action
2009 Global downturn and (patchy) recovery