Crisis Is More of Confidence Than Credit

Times scribe connects dots from housing boom to Bear Stearns
By Jim O'Neill,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 19, 2008 11:39 AM CDT
Crisis Is More of Confidence Than Credit
The housing boom of the late 1990s led to some creative debt options and stretched investors thin from Main Street to Wall Street.   (AP Photo/ Tony Avelar)

The credit crisis that’s roiled financial markets has its genesis in the housing boom that began in 1998, David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times. The boom led lenders to create new financing options—including subprime loans—as investors saw potential for huge returns. Low interest rates encouraged investors, and homeowners, to stretch themselves too thin—and the seeds of crisis were planted.

Wall Street bundled mortgages for sale globally; individuals and institutions bought huge slices of the risky investment on credit. When the pieces began to fall, so did the market, leading to a devastating tightening of credit—as institutions lost confidence in the ability of others to back up promises. Only housing-market resurgence, Fed chief Ben Bernanke says, can turn things around. (More subprime mortgages stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X