What caused the Crash?
Banks gave out too many of these, even to people who couldn’t afford them.
What are home loans?
He was president of the United States when the recession began in 2007–2008.
Who is George W. Bush?
The government gave money to banks to stop the economy from crashing. This was called a what?
What is a bailout?
Many people lost these when companies cut costs.
What are jobs?
The recession started in the U.S. but also hit countries in this part (continent) of the world, like Greece and Spain.
What is Europe?
Many people bought houses hoping prices would keep doing this.
What is going up?
He became president in 2009 and helped lead recovery efforts.
Who is Barack Obama?
The government lowered this rate to make borrowing cheaper.
What is the interest rate?
This number, which tracks how many people don’t have jobs, went way up.
What is the unemployment rate?
This country, the second biggest economy in the world, spent lots of money to keep growing.
What is China?
When people, businesses, and banks borrowed too much money, they had what?
What is debt (or leverage)?
This big investment bank went bankrupt in 2008, starting a panic
What is Lehman Brothers?
In 2009, the government passed a large spending bill to help create jobs and grow the economy.
What is the stimulus package?
This generation, born in the 1980s and 1990s, graduated into a tough job market.
Who are Millennials?
Many countries' economies shrank. This three-letter term describes the total value of what a country produces.
What is GDP?
These risky home loans were given to people with bad credit.
What are subprime mortgages?
This large insurance company almost failed and had to be rescued by the government.
What is AIG?
The big $700 billion plan to save banks and companies was called this.
What is TARP?
Some people had to delay this part of life because they lost savings.
What is retirement?
The group known as the IMF helped countries deal with the crisis. It stands for this.
What is the International Monetary Fund?
Banks combined many home loans into packages and sold them—when people couldn’t pay, these packages lost value.
What are mortgage-backed securities?
He was the head of the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, during the crisis.
Who is Ben Bernanke?
A 2010 law made rules to stop another crisis. It’s called this.
What is the Dodd-Frank Act?
People couldn’t pay their house payments, and lost their homes to this.
What is foreclosure?
This small island country’s banks all collapsed in 2008.
What is Iceland?