This podcast will give you an economist’s look at the causes of the 2008 recession in America. Tim and I discuss the events that led up to the crisis beginning with the speech President Bush made on September 23, 2008 where he warned the American people of the dysfunction in the economy at the time and made some dire predictions that unfortunately a number of them came to pass. 

Major global corporations like Lehman Brothers failed, others like Merrill Lynch, an equities icon, was sold to Bank of America and thousands of other companies went bankrupt. We watched as consumer confidence plunged to the lowest levels since we started measuring it. Consumer Spending likewise became that last thing that Americans wanted to do and sales of nearly everything began to decline at levels not seen since the Great Depression. 

There is no doubt that we were in trouble and indeed by March of 2009 the stock exchanges all reached historic lows and unemployment in November of that year was over 10%.  But there was hope on the horizon and I will explore the subtle changes that occurred and those that are still affecting our recovery.