The financial crisis of 2007-2008 was years in the making.

By the summer of 2007,

financial markets around the world were showing signs that the reckoning was
overdue for a years-long binge on cheap credit. Two Bear Stearns hedge funds had
collapsed, BNP Paribas was warning investors that they might not be able to
withdraw money from two of its funds, and the British bank Northern Rock was about
to seek emergency funding from the Bank of England.

Yet despite the warning signs, few investors suspected that the worst crisis in
nearly eight decades was about to engulf the global financial system, bringing Wall
Street's giants to their knees and triggering the Great Recession.

It was an epic financial and economic collapse that cost many ordinary people their
jobs, their life savings, their homes, or all three.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
The 2007-2009 financial crisis began years earlier with cheap credit and lax
lending standards that fueled a housing bubble.
When the bubble burst, financial institutions were left holding trillions of
dollars worth of near-worthless investments in subprime mortgages.
Millions of American homeowners found themselves owing more on their mortgages than
their homes were worth.
The Great Recession that followed cost many their jobs, their savings, or their
homes.
The turnaround began in early 2009 after the passage of the infamous Wall Street