The Great Recession and the failure of financial intermediaries.
Religion & Liberty Online

The Great Recession and the failure of financial intermediaries.

Note: This is post #92 in a weekly video series on basic economics.

What caused the Great Recession of 2008? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Tyler Cowen discusses a couple of key reasons, including homeowners’ leverage, securitization, and the role of excess confidence and incentives. He then considers what could have been done to prevent the worst financial crisis of our young century.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d recommend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Click here to see other videos in the Introduction to Economics series.

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).