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Banking Practices The main reason why the credit crunch got started to begin with was banking practices that handed large loans to people who did not have the ability to pay it back. Banks saw risky loans as a way of getting a large profit, because they could offer subprime loans which collected a higher interest rate, as well as higher fees for late and missed payments. This happened mainly in the mortgage industry since the real estate business was booming when it became popular. Credit card companies also got into the subprime lending trend. The end result was a mass number of loan defaults that has led to the foreclosure crisis still going on right now. Why the credit crunch is still lingering is because these bad debts are still falling into the hands of lenders who make the risky deals. More homeowners are slated for foreclosure right now then possibly ever before and each one that defaults makes the overall situation even worse. Also, right now the banks are not loaning money to one another and many are requiring federal bailout to maintain operations. The cost is then passed on to the consumer in the form of higher lending rates, and right now you must have good credit to get even those higher raters. The financial industry is the leader of our economy right now, so until they get their books straightened out and start to lend money again the end to this credit crunch is far off. Foreclosures Residential home foreclosure has been an issue for over a year now, but the situation is expanding to more commercial foreclosures as businesses go under and cannot afford to pay for buildings purchased for operations. This is a big factor in why the economic tension has sustained so long, because all of these foreclosures put more bad debt on the banks and the investors who purchased the loans when times were good. The property attached to the loans is now worth much less than is owed on the loan, so even after the property is seized and sold the investors will take a loss. There is only so much bad debt a bank can sustain without it cutting into the available money to extend new loans, and this is a major reason why the credit crunch has not yet ended. The government bailouts are trying to help on this end by taking over some of the bad debts, but as long as foreclosures are still collecting the situation will likely continue as well. |
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