Mortgage Markets and the 2008 Financial Crisis

Abstract

Through the analysis and organization of existing literature related to the 2008 Financial Crisis, I identity the primary parties (government, Federal Reserve, rating agencies, and Wall Street) and their individual contributions to the crisis. This paper is an attempt to identify the party with the greatest contribution to the crisis. Although many authors attribute absolute fault to one of the previously mentioned parties, I conclude that the crisis must be viewed holistically and that it is irrational to blame a single party.