It was a bruising year for U.S. capitalism. Not only did the world's largest economy plunge into recession, but financial mismanagement and misjudgment triggered a global financial crisis. The question now is whether President-elect Barack Obama has learned lessons of history and can rally domestic and international support to stave off a truly Great Depression. If he does, he may restore some of the luster that his country has lost in recent years. Thus far, the signs are positive.
Historians will remember 2008 as the year that a financial crisis "made in America" rocked the world. The inability of subprime mortgage holders to repay loans set off a string of failures among financial companies. But not only banks and mortgage companies were holding bad paper. Those debts had been packaged as securities and resold around the world. Those instruments plunged in value as well, leaving other financial institutions with worthless pieces of paper. The rush to salvage those assets triggered a financial crisis that sucked the liquidity out of international capital markets.
There is blame to go around for this financial tsunami. Banks gave mortgages to unworthy borrowers and failed to explain the terms of loans. Borrowers took loans that they knew they could not repay. Financial companies repackaged those loans and sold them, knowing that their value was uncertain at best. Companies bought those securities, not understanding their value. And regulators adopted a hands-off approach that facilitated the spread of toxic debt.