Mortgage meltdown from "summary" of Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
The mortgage meltdown was like a hurricane that swept through the financial markets, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. It all started with the housing bubble, a phenomenon that had been building for years. As home prices soared to unprecedented levels, people were taking out mortgages they couldn't afford, lured by the promise of easy money and the belief that home prices would never fall. Banks and financial institutions were all too happy to oblige, creating complex financial instruments that allowed them to slice and dice these mortgages into securities that could be sold to investors around the world. The demand for these securities was insatiable, fueled by the belief that housing prices would always go up and that the risk of default was minimal. But when the housing bubble finally burst, everything came crashing down. Home prices plummeted, leaving many homeowners underwater on their mortgages and unable to make their payments. This set off a chain reactio...
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