Over here in the UK this period is described as "the credit crunch" The folk memory describes the cause as banks loaning money to people who patently couldn't

Over here in the UK this period is described as "the credit crunch" The folk memory describes the cause as banks loaning money to people who patently couldn't afford it, mixing those loans up with mortgages that had passed sensible credit checks. They then homogenised shit mix loans as high quality bonds. All was fine, until the foreclosing happened (repossessions), suddenly the bond repayments weren't as good, and pop, everyone started questioning how good their investments were. sure it was triggered by the american housing market, but it wasn't really a bubble, it was large scale fraud, combined by hubris and a ratings system that was/is corrupt of crushingly incompetent