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The start of the credit crunch was in the 1990s when lenders started handing out subprime loans to people who did not have the income or the credit ratings to guarantee they could pay back the money. Subprime loans are intended for borrowers with low credit ratings as a means to pay higher interest rates and higher fees on late payments in exchange for the opportunity to improve their credit in the future. The original idea was that after a couple years of paying on a subprime loan the borrower would be able to refinance into a lower prime rate. The problem is that lenders started loaning money to more and more risky borrowers until a large percentage of all loans were subprime. You can probably guess what comes along with risky loans: default of those loans, of course. The defaults are only part of the story. Banks only make money if the loans are actually paid off with the interest they accrue along the way. As the housing market started to decline many people found that their homes were worth much less than the loans they were paying on. As more and more people went into default this meant that the banks were stuck with the debt from the loans unpaid, and the homes they took as collateral were not worth as much as was owed. The end result is that even the largest banks ran out of money for future loans. The natural response in such a situation is to cut off lending except for the cases where there is a proven track record and the financial means to pay back the money plus interest. The credit crunch cause therefore was the dollar signs in the eyes of lenders who realized they could make a nice profit off the initial fees of making subprime loans. There of course is never a short supply of people wanting to buy their first home, their first new car, or looking to take out yet another credit card. Banks allowed their rising profit margins to interfere with common sense and they extended more risky lines of credit than they could afford to cover in the long run. Combine those loose lending practices with an economy heading for recession and you have the real credit crunch cause. |
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