re: How many of y'all were personally affected by the 2007-08 financial crisis?

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Can someone explain to me how this negatively affected middle class, blue collar people and not just the white collar fat cats? It just didn't seem like that big of a deal to me at the time. Maybe I was just too far removed from it.

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The 08 financial crisis was transparent to a lot of people who were not involved in buying a home, your emp[loyer failing, or your financial institution going under. So if you missed those issues, and most did, it was a lot of noise.

However, It was very serious. The US banking system came close to large scale failure due to the policies of the US govt on home loan borrowing initiated under Clinton and furthered by W. The major impact to the middle class was loss of investment value especially in mutual funds and retirement accounts. So I would add upcoming retirees to my list above. The majority of the effects were gone in 3-5 yrs.

The biggest misconception in this crisis comes from many of my conservative compatriots who loathe the govt "bailouts" like the govt gave the major banks money to cover their financial misconduct. First the govt only issued Toxc Asset Recovery Progam, TARP, loans to institutions that were viable to survive the issue. All TARP loans were repaid in the next 3yrs or so. No money was given to anyone. The main point here that was regurgitated over and over was "let them fail" but these idiots do not know what the domino effect is and how it would have taken out the US Banking system and hence the Global banking system. Potential 1929 era depression.

Lastly the whole problem was started by the US Govt policy on lowering home loan down payment requirements to improve minority and low income home ownership. Then the low grade mortgages were weaved into investments by quasi NGO FannieMae and FreddieMac in mortgage backed securites that made it impossible to quarantene the massive number of failing mortgages that were sinking the US and world banks.

I graduated in 2008 and was lucky that I already had a job lined up by the end of 2007, or I wouldn’t have found one. The consulting firm that I worked at didn’t hire anyone the following year, and the year after that, we hired 2 people. I couldn’t believe how overqualified many applicants were, and they still didn’t get the job. On the one hand, I felt thankful to have a job. On the other hand, I hated my job, and it was impossible to find something else even though I was willing to take less money. I spent nearly 3 years in a job I hated before I could find a good fit elsewhere. The job market was so much worse than it is today.

Honestly. I didn't feel it much. We had just bought a house in 2005 with no intention of selling it anytime soon, we just kept working and putting into our 401k's. Sold the house a few years later for 33% more than we paid for it.

Congrats to the two above posters explaining the specifics of the loans stuff.. I recall govt saying everyone should be able to own the American dream of a house and put in those new rules..

I was lucky as op said and it did not impact me ( was still in the dollar cost avg in purchase mode for 401 and years from retirement)… and I did not have extra cash around to invest in a cabin in the mountains :(

I do recall that I was traveling in Europe a lot for business then and they were just hammering the us on the stuff op explained… I sorta recall it spread from the us and hit Europe also??

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Can someone explain to me how this negatively affected middle class, blue collar people and not just the white collar fat cats

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I graduated in 07. I got laid off in 09. The company did 70% less revenue year over year as all the construction dried up once Katrina money was spent and the recession took hold in SELA. The next three years saw me bounce around and work for two companies that went belly up before I got on with a stable company. That incident took years to recover from and still affects me today.

My FiL lost his business and most of his money during the recession.

The housing crisis last longer than 2008. It went into 2013 at least before builders started building houses with confidence they could sell them. It took that long to clear all the foreclosures.

I bought my house in 2009. I actually traded houses with the bank the repo'd the house I bought from the builder that went under. My current house was worth a lot more so I had to pay the difference.

In 2010, I talked to a builder that owned the empty lot next to me about buying it from him. He asked an outrageous amount for the lot, basically more than what it would have cost before the housing crisis. I laughed at him and and told him I'd buy it from the bank in a couple of years. I bought it for less than half what he was asking. Sold it in 2017 for a 58% profit.