How the 2008 Financial Crisis Still Affects You 

As someone who was still in middle school in 2008, I never really understood what happened. Even watching documentaries and movies about this crisis didn’t help much. But this video here is such a clear and structured piece of work that finally give long awaited answers for me. Really awesome to live in the information era.

I did IT work for a major IT firm at a major chemical producer starting in 2001. In 2008 our IT work staff went from 15 people to 8 to 4 to 2 in a matter of months. Everyone took mandatory pay cuts, loss of benefits, loss of vacation, and more overtime even as they were shoving people out the door. I kept my job through all of it watching both the IT firm and chemical producer tighten their belts. We understood the world was hurting and we thought if we were lucky for just surviving. Here's the dirty little secret... even when things got better and both companies were posting record profit, we never got our pay, benefits, or vacation restored nor a reduction of overtime. The companies might have been forced to reduce, but it also allowed them to see the minimum human factor they could maintain and survive. By 2016, I was used up. The companies had literally worked me so much I was experiencing both mental and physical health issues. Being the 'Senior' of the two remaining employees, I was on call 280 days a year when it was common to get called in two or three times a night. They expanded the territory I was expected to cover time and time again. I was left no choice but to leave -- not only that job, but IT completely. I now work as a layout / designer for a small print shop making a fraction of what I was making. That's my takeaway from 2008. Companies used the opportunity to weed out the weak and exploit those that remained under the guise of, "Look how lucky you are" all while pocketing record profits. All 2008 did was let the greed trickle down, fester, and ruin even more lives.

It’s just crazy to me that so many of these bank managers and executives didn’t go to prison or worse. Absolute free license for unrestrained psychopathy; it’s no different a problem than letting dogs with rabies run around.

Our economy struggling with uncertainties, housing issues, foreclosures, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.

It was a very bad decision to remove the Glass-Steagall Act in the late 1990s, which led to the spectacular failure of huge banks during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. To prevent another disaster, Dodd-Frank and this statute both need to be reestablished right away. What happened with SVB is only the beginning of what will happen if nothing is done to address the current situation.

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes" - Mark Twain

2008 sucked. One day I was an aggregate manager. The next I was an equipment operator working seasonally. I was called to a meeting and told to bring my laptop, company phone, and company truck. They left me in the shop parking lot with my own tools and no way to get to my home 30 miles away. I never felt like such a failure. To make it even better my wife was on bed rest with our child due to complications and I did not want to tell her our income was not cut by 60 percent. We lost everything in the next 9 months. House. Savings. Vehicles. Most of retirement. I watched friends, who I warned about the sub prime loans lose their houses. I never want to go through that again. I am still trying to recover. The only good that came out of that time was my wonderful daughter.

2008 lost my house, 2009 lost business, husband died, ended up a widow at age 30 with no credit cards, no saving, and no job. Still trying to get my feet under me. I’ll definitely never be able to own a house again. 2009 has definitely marked my life, and derail all my future plans.

The fact that these bank CEOs were not arrested and jailed for life is beyond me! The destruction they caused makes jeffrey dahmer look like a saint.

A big consequence that nobody talks much about is that an entire generation of high school students never got to enter the workforce like they normally would. Myself and nearly everyone I knew was competing against grown adults who had lost their jobs and were now applying to the formerly entry-level work like fast food and retail. A generation of kids lost out on 2-3 years of savings and work experience. The “summer job” became a thing of the past.

I was born a planned child. My parents had set up a few of accounts for me for college and a house. They were doing their hardest to build me a future they dreamt of for themselves. I remember going down to the bank once a week with my dad and depositing money into my fund. “This will be here for you, one day you can buy a house!” I remember when my sister was born, they started one for her as well. I remember the rental property my dad bought and was renovating. I remember the plans he had to build a new building for his business. I remember how my mom was always in time to pick me up from school. Then one day, it all disappeared. We stopped going to the bank, my dad didn’t mention his rental nor his architectural plans, mom stopped picking me up. I remember how often I was home alone in the house, I was already in bed by the time they’d come home from work. I remember the countless arguments they would have. Couldn’t sleep at times. My dad had a heart attack due to the stress, but I didn’t understand at the time why dad was in the hospital. I remember how often we’d eat frozen/prepared food. How we started it buying in bulk, a habit that they still have today. My parents barely kept the house and my dad’s business. Both declared bankruptcy.Only by having it under my grandmother’s name did they keep it. After my dad’s heart attack, grandma ransomed it back. We haven’t seen her since. My parents were robbed of their work and time with their family. They lost their savings and future. Meanwhile, head bankers got paid EXTRA to ruin millions of lives and continue to this day.

America is currently plagued by the hydra-headed evil duo of inflation and recession. The worst part about this recession is that consumers are racking up credit card debt. In April alone, credit card debt went up 20% while rates have doubled in a year. Inflation is so high that consumers are literally taking debt for basic life necessities. Collapse has indeed begun.. Lloyd Bernard

I graduated undergrad and entered the workforce in 2009. As a working adult, I have never had full confidence that the money I’m working for will actually be there on payday. I know millennials catch a lot of flack for being critical of employers and workplace expectations, but truly I think we are so traumatized by the era we work in. Growing up seeing our parents get by with no degree, climbing corporate ladders from entry level positions while being able to afford a house, a family, a savings… Being told that if we work hard enough we can have what they have… Looking at the bigger picture, it feels like gaslighting 😵‍💫

“You can’t model human behavior with math.” Love that

I wonder if those who lived through the 2008 financial crisis had it easier because my portfolio has incurred a loss of over $27,000. I fear for the outlook of my retirement when I struggle to grow my stagnant reserve.

The government's response to the crisis was crucial in lowering market apprehension. The economy of the United States of America as well as that of other countries was impacted by a lack of transparency and public trust. It makes me question whether it is morally appropriate-or even secure-to rely solely on the analyses provided by these so-called experts. I hope this doesn't happen again given where we're going

The amount of financial trauma this gave my now-ex girlfriend...she is terrified of credit, debt, loans, and banks, and constantly thinks she has no money and will lose everything overnight. Her family was hit hard by 2008 and it shows in her approach to personal finance today. Her father did not learn his lesson and continues reckless spending and debt habits swearing one day he will get rich again. It is so sad.

My parents immigrated to Italy in 1992 when they were just 20yo. They didn't know the language, had no money, no family nor friends yet they managed to find a job, get a house and grow a family. In 2008 i was just 13 yo and I remember my father and older sister were extremely stressed and worried all the time. I will never forget the scene of my sister and I, in the bedroom, as she was trying to explain to me what was happening. she said: 'before, if you lost your job, you could find a new one the next day. Now is not like that anymore. There are no jobs and very little money'. the memory it's still vivid in my mind. It has really created a sort of 'trauma' around money and finance.

The 2008 collapse was the event that solidified my belief that luck is the single most important factor for success in life. I graduated college in 2008 along with a number of friends and people that I knew. Every one of them ended up doing just fine, the collapse was nothing more than a slight bump in the road for them. Within a year it was like nothing happened and they were all in good paying jobs with massive vertical potential. Meanwhile, I was still struggling to get job interviews and make anything happen, the collapse had absolutely decimated my ability to do anything. Looking back at the wide scope of degrees we all had and where we ended up, my belief that luck is the single most important factor in life has been set in stone. It's also hilarious @35:20 seeing the national debt at "only" $11 trillion, seeing as how now it's over $31 trillion. $31 trillion...just let that sink in.

I was born into a well off family, but in 2008 we lost everything. Went from living comfortably to unemployment checks and food stamps. It’s pretty much all I’ve ever known because I was so young and my family still suffers to this day. My parents lost all their savings over the years trying to keep us off the streets and I’ve already promised myself to never have children no matter how well I am doing financially because I’d never want my child to experience this. I think a lot of people my age feel the same way, it’s sad that we can’t trust our government not to give in to corporate lobbyists. 2008-2010 were some of the most impactful years of my entire life.

It sickens me that no one was punished for this. Banks need to be held accountable and hold less power in the world.

I was working as a Computer Network Engineer at the time. Then all hell broke loose over the next few years. It was like watching a slow motion train wreck. As things imploded, I lost my job, my house, my wife and my way of life. I was trying to do consulting in any type of IT that I could find but no luck. It was just too hard while I was fighting my ex-wife over child support and paying huge lawyer fees. I finally just gave up and moved back in with my father and mother. At the time, my mother was slowly dying of some sort of brain related dementia or Alzheimer's (I really don't think they ever really knew). This is when I got low wage driver jobs at Pizza Hut and then as a package handler for FedEx. This is very hard work when you are going on 60, I wasn't a kid anymore. I seriously considered some kind of suicide at this time. During all this I had run up my credit card debt to about $70k ( a combination of business debts and reeducation). I ended up borrowing money from a friend and invested in foreclosures. It was the only best game in town. I made a little money but nowhere near enough. When my mother passed and then my father a few years later, I was able to pay off most of my debts with the inheritance. As soon as I hit 62, I claimed my social security and moved to the Philippines. I live a meager life. I paid my debts and I am enjoying the lower cost of living. I never thought this could happen to me. I had a good life up to the crash of 2008. Thanks for the video. It's a nice piece of work that shows how our lives were destroyed and many of us never recovered. My sons will never have a better life than my parents did.

Comments feels like an AA meeting... Having lived through this as a millinial has woken me up to how brutal the systems can be. Hope we can fix this. Great vid man.❤

I am 21. In 2008, I was 6 years old. My understanding and experience of the economy is wholly shaped by a post-2008 experience, similar to how I will never understand the "pre-9/11" world either... Thanks for explaining the complete disconnect between the way I conceptualize the economy, and the way Gen X adults do. It's so difficult to see why they still see innate value in certain assets, especially "conceptual" ones.

As someone who was just starting my adult life during the 2008 crisis, I can tell you exactly how it felt. It felt like showing up to a party 2 minutes after they stopped letting people in. Just got to stand outside in the rain looking through the window at all the partiers (the older generation) having a good time oblivious to what was going on outside.

I was 15 when this happened, my parents lost their house in 2009. My dad was working 3 jobs just to keep food on the table and had a small stroke from stress and lack of sleep. The impact that this event had on everyday people was just horrible. Everyone involved should have been put behind bars.

I finished work on Friday, woke up ready for work on the Monday only to find I didn't have a job, I'm a plumber and have struggled ever since. In 2008 my world was turned upside down and never recovered.

I graduated from college in 2009. I couldn't find work anywhere pertaining to my education. To this day I'm still working at the supermarket across the street from campus. It was weird going from grad school to bagging groceries. It was a total mess and still is.

I have always tried to keep my head up and look on the bright side, but you can just see and feel the middle/lower classes getting crushed. Education is expensive and fueled by debt. Homeless is rampant. Inflation is rampant. Health insurance is worse than ever. Wages are stagnant. Wealth inequality is at all time highs. The birth rate is still falling, and why should it not? I feel badly because my parents and grandparents just can't seem to understand how bad it's gotten. When they were younger, they were paid commensurately with their productivity - they could be independent, explore the world, and, when they were ready to settle down, afford a middle class lifestyle, (house, kids, take vacations, ect.). I am a engineer in biotech and I turn 30 in a month and do you want to know what I feel on the ground? I am blessed with what used to be a good paycheck, but I can't afford an apartment in my own market, let alone a house. I pay $1350 in rent for my room in San Diego and live with four roommates. I have student loans hanging around my neck. My health insurance is poor. And I'm tired, so tired. My company has had such churn and now runs as us a skeleton crew. I am beginning to question the system and why I participate in it, and that is a very, very bad sign. If engineers feel that (and I've talked to many of my peers), then that feeling is seething in lower jobs as well. I am not complaining. I am not a materialistic person, and accumulating things for the sake of it has never brought me happiness. I merely am pointing out the disparity between generations that corroborates the belief of many young people - that for all intents and purposes, the American Dream feels dead. And it feels like it died in 2008.

I was working at a Canadian bank. I wrote a small application that helped them manage short term securities borrowing and lending in 2007-2008. I tested the app with the help of a person in ops. The first morning that we went into production, I noticed that the Canadian dollar page was full of activity, but the US dollar page was absolutely empty. I called my contact in ops to tell him that the app wasn’t working, and the US dollar page was empty. I will never forget his reply: he said “no, that’s correct. We aren’t dealing with US banks”.

I graduated high school in 2008, got my degrees over the next couple years and the one thing I feel that once separated me from older generations was the fact I had seen and heard enough to know everyone is full of it, all these things are man-created buildings or systems, and humans all bleed red. I don’t take anything too seriously because everything is fallible and I’m really able to look past first impressions in people because I’ve learned nothing is what it seems

The 2008 crisis brought many challenges and also changed me forever. It left the fear of not being able to get a job and that you could lose everything very quickly. Made me a more cautious person and always planning for the worst.

The scary part about this recession was, usually recessions use to last 4-6 months....this one - really never ended....I lost my job, thought I'd just go on unemployment for a few months, instead - 2 years later I hadn't found another comparable job, lost all my savings, unemployment had run out, lost my family, and really never recovered.

From 2008-2012, the company I worked at had wave after wave of mass layoffs. Every conference call was people yelling at each other. We had 3 cancer deaths, 4 heart attacks, 2 suicides, and lots of divorces. All due to stress. It was awful.

I was 8 when this happened, and I'm still getting screwed by all of this. It's insane how a lack of common sense and oversight can leave an entire generation and a half in the lurch.

Graduated high school 2010 it would be great to actually enjoy a stable economy for once in my adult life

I was 10 years old when this happened. Over the years I’ve begun to increasingly notice the shadow of the Financial crash hanging over everything and it really feels like it was the end of the good times. The UK feels like it never truly recovered from the crash, like many other countries.

This one hits very close to home, Dagogo. Just like you, I was too young, 14 to be specific, in 2008 to fully realize what was going on. Unfortunately for me, I am Greek, and man did we get shafted hard. I vividly remember the days of the collapse, with the news blabbering all day about it, and thought that it was just a bunch of distant problems that weren't interesting and would never affect me. But I still remember my parents being concerned. The truth is, we didn't realize how bad it really was until a bit later on, I wanna say 2010-2011. My father is a civil engineer and my mother a high school teacher. They were both earning respectable salaries and, while we weren't rich by any stretch, we were good. Nothing essential was ever missing in our home, we could buy stuff we wanted, my parents had bought a second car in 2006 to help with my and my sister's transportation for lessons and such, they took a loan in 2007 to buy a small piece of land near the sea to build a little cottage (seafront property is rather abundant in Greece, after all) and we could still live comfortably. My mother's salary was cut quite a bit, but my father's was higher so we still seemed ok. But one day in I think 2011 I remember my dad coming home pale, sick looking. He told us that his salary was cut by a bit more than half. That was the year I was finishing school. I was quite successful and went into med school in 2012. My parents were overjoyed, but that didn't last long, as soon the reality set in that they would struggle to pay for my studies. Then 3 years on, my sister was in the same position as me. And suddenly, we went from being well off to struggling with every day spending. We had to go for the cheap groceries, we would completely forego non essential items, we would replace our clothes only after they were totally worn out, mostly to keep paying a terribly timed loan paid. Now, my father is a stoic man, but seeing him barely holding back tears because he didn't know if we could make it, all while my mother had already broken down, that was traumatic. And the saddest part? We were still well off, relatively speaking. I mean, we were struggling, but we still had our home, we still had food on our table and my sister and I could still, though barely, keep up with our studies. Others were in even worse shape. Friends and family were losing their jobs, some their homes, older people's pensions went from ok to being unable to cover even their most basic needs, putting even more stress on people who had old parents to look after. Then society devolved into complete chaos. Suddenly, everyone was outraged. Suddenly, everyone was out in the streets protesting. Suddenly, the far right and far left gained power. Suddenly, we couldn't care anymore. People had nothing more to lose, nothing more to give, and austerity measures still demanded more be given. People just stopped paying for loans, taxes, utilities, you name it. It was as if society raised a collective middle finger upwards. It was glorious and sad to witness. Sadly, it all fizzled out and people became comfortable again, when instead of being homeless, they could rent a 25sq.m home, or when minimum wage went from 550€ a month (yes, 550 A MONTH) to a whopping 600€. And instead of these hardships forging us into better people, we became complacent and accepted that we're the poor, the bums of the EU. Nowadays Greece is barely more than a tourist destination and a factory of cheap scientists for richer countries. Countless people, myself included, studied in Greek universities and have highly sought after degrees, but are leaving Greece in favor of countries with better wages and, honestly, more acceptable living and working conditions, because no one studied to become a doctor or an engineer or a lawyer or what have you to work endless hours for scraps, but scraps is what we get. So yeah, the title is spot on. 2008 still affects us. I don't like that I had all these memories brought back, but you did a hell of a job with this video. Cheers man.

Came here from the SVB video. I think we will die repeating mistakes. The greed of those who have money forcing the rest to feed on the crumbs that fall from the table will hit us hard again soon enough. It's very difficult to remain positive seeing how things are now. Kudos to the people of Iceland for jailing their irresponsible bankers.

I graduated high school in 2008. The crisis has shaped my entire adult life.

I was a kid in 2008 and when this hit here in Iceland we lost everything and had to move into a tiny 100+ year old house which was mostly just made out of wood and a tiny bit of concrete. We just barely managed to get that house because my mom was smart and somehow managed to prevent us becoming homeless. The fact that we still haven’t fully recovered just goes to show how devastating this mess was.

I started my career as a young banker in 1976 until the failure of Seafirst bank and its acquisition by Bank of America in 1982. Later as banker, IT manager, entrepreneur, college professor and investor I have lived through the 30 years described in this video. I have NEVER found a summary of our financial and economic history as well done as this. This video should be mandatory for high school graduation and for college graduation again. In less than one hour it could deliver a population that understands economic and financial history of the US and of the world at large with an understanding of the toxic collaboration of government and financial institutions. AWESOME JOB. Thank you.

In Italy we were almost like the US. A lot of people had mortgages to repay because everyone bought houses believing they were an investment. Then the crisis came and houses lost value, people were poorer and, cherry on top, we got austerity in 2011 and the IMU tax, which overly taxed all pur houses. So families who already had mortgages also had to pay taxes. Many lost their properties to banks, many companies failed. I was 8 during 2008. During my tween years I saw my father ageing faster than normal and becoming bitter and resentful towards society, since he worked to pay taxes and repay debts. Me and my friends grow up to saw only that life could get worse and not better. We are now almost ready to enter the workforce but as others said we are either overqualified or underqualified or destined to move abroad.

I was 16 in 2010 and looking for my first job…. I got turned down by Arby’s, McDonald’s, walmart and many more jobs paying $7.25 an hour. My friends parents were working in these jobs because they had been laid off from corporate positions

I was a senior in high school in 2008 and looking back after this video, a lot of things that my dad did/said during that time make sense. He mentioned that we were very close to the bank reposessing our house and that our finances were in shambles. It always bothered me and even to this day I've dedicated a huge part of my life to being better with money than my dad was (despite him being my hero in just about every other area of life), but now looking back with the knowledge from this video, I can hardly blame my dad. And actually, the fact that he managed to keep the house through it all makes him a hero to me even in that area.

This video was a harbinger to the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) demise of the last few days. The stage is set for more financial disasters. Great work on these videos, Dagogo. People should prepare for the worst.

I am in my 30s and I am just recovering from this. The stress, mental health, and family problems worsened through the years as the recession set a chain reaction that affected year after year and now I am recovering financially but I am now physically ill. There are millions of people who experienced the same or experienced far graver problems. Whoever live through this we are the lost generation and hope one day those responsible are judged for the crimes against humanity they committed, they are the same people who released Covid-19.

I don't get how people can be "too young to be affected". Back then I was 16 and lived at my parents, they lost their jobs and it was a hard time. It's just insane that those responsible for completely ruining so many peoples lives are still not in jail. There should've been trials similar to the Nuremburg trials for these crimes against humanity.

It's sickening that the top 1% gambled with our economy, brought it to shambles when it all failed, begged for bailouts and then ran away with all the money while everyone else suffers to this day. We're heading into another recession and those same 1% continue to profit off of our suffering.

It's all about energy. The economy is an infinite growth model that is as slamming into the inescapable reality of finite resources. It's falling apart around us.. Decoupling from it is vital for survival.

I graduated HS in 2002 and I was barely able to get back on my my feet in 2017. Took 15 years to stabalize my situation.

I was 39 and fresh from a divorce. I was renting an apartment. All my friends were buying houses and living the high life. They thought I was crazy for paying off my debt and refusing to buy a home. Then it happened. They lost homes, cars, boats, etc. I felt bad for them but, I tried to warn them that this spiral upward cannot be sustained.

Year-over-year inflation stood at 6.5% in December 2022-the lowest that figure has been in more than a year. Inflation was in line with what economists expected and gave many of them a reason to believe that the peak of inflation may be behind us. I have approximately $150k stagnant in my port_folio that needs growth. What is the best way to take advantage of this downturn?

In 2008 I was at university. My family was pretty sheltered from the hardship. But I remember flipping through the Washington Post and seeing page after page after page of foreclosure announcements. I also noticed many cars broken down at the side of the road, I guess because people were trying to stretch out car maintenance or their gas tank... I had a small job shelving books at the local library. The county government had 15% budget cuts, so they fired all of us so they could hire back half the employees at a lower rate...

💰ColdFusion is the financial literacy info we needed in school. Applied learning. 💰

My neighbors lost their house during this mess. They had a predatory balloon loan. Overnight, their loan went up to 4 times what the house was worth. They abandoned their home, Then the banks argued over which bank owned what percentage of the property as it sat empty for five years. During that time, a tree on their property fell and smashed the side of my car. My insurance company couldn't even find out who owned the property. I remember a person at an Occupy Wall Street protest with a sign saying "JUMP! YOU F*CK*RS! (without the edit) and I think that summed up pretty thoroughly what people I knew were thinking.

My family lost our home in the 2008 crash. It was our home for over 30 years we only owed around $10,000. It was really tragic we were homeless for a while.

I graduated with a bachelors degree in criminal justice in 2009, and in Miami, Fl, there was a freeze on the types of jobs that could get with my ridiculous degree. Long story short. I never did anything with it because no one ever hired me! Today, im stuck with student debt! A degree in the US changed my life for the worst!

I didn’t think it affected me until last week my mum told me the reason I’m an only child is because of how close they came to losing their house in 2008. I guess I would have a brother or sister if it weren’t for the crisis.

I've spent most of my 20s and all of my 4 30s building my business. I was damn near wiped out in 08 and had to do a short sale on my condo. I paid my mortgage up until the month I moved out voluntarily to initiate the short sale. I rented a guest house from a client and then ended up renting a condo from a man that bought it for next to nothing after the crash. I spent years rebuilding my business and lived in my car for quite some time to make it all work. After years of struggling and feeling like I was getting nowhere with my business things started to turn around around 2017 for me and buy a 2020 I finally purchased my own gym. One week after that purchase was when the COVID shutdowns kicked off in California. 2 weeks of flat in the curve ended up being roughly 2 years of either being shut down or forced to operate in a very limited capacity. I received no help from the government and I will never be compensated for those losses. And I'm having to let that the gym go a year later and I'm now subleasing from a much larger gym. They are struggling as well and we work together to survive. And now we're in a recession and things are getting worse. So basically I spent the better part of my youth busting my ass to build something that was ripped out of my hands twice for no reason of my own. It's heartbreaking to be honest and I don't know if I have it in me I keep fighting cuz I'm not sure if I even believe a better future will exist if I do. I hope one day we all rise up and make these people pay for what they've done. It's not the working folks fault but it certainly becomes our problem doesn't it?

The 9/11 attacks and the crash of 2008 are the most traumatic events I remember, with the longest lasting consequences for the American empire. Both made me lose my innocence and what little faith I had in humanity. 9/11 was followed by our country getting into countless wars to try to contain so called terrorism, as though you can fight something so nebulous with guns/bombs, and 2008 destroyed whatever financial stability our country had. Our country never recovered from either and I have noticed a steady decline in people’s faith in our institutions since these things happened. People don’t want to have kids bc they don’t want to bring more people into our current shit show. Drug abuse and depression are rampant as people have no hope. Younger generations have nothing to look forward to as our environment degrades and they witness our economic system and political systems get exposed for their flaws repeatedly.

My father works at Bank. He taught me well : never use credit, use debit. Now I work at Bank, and I understand him better.

I graduated from college in 2009, and I remember being in my last year of school and reading about the crisis and seeing headlines like "the college graduates of 2009 will have the worst job prospects in history." It was pretty disheartening, to say the least. Then after graduating I couldn't find a job anywhere, even at places like McDonald's. My mental health was already shaky, and it got so much worse during this time. In order to escape the hole I felt like I was in, I enlisted in the US Marine Corps, which is a totally insane thing to do but I was that desperate. The financial crisis was a total disaster that shaped the course of my entire life, often in profoundly negative ways.

This hit close to home for me. My family had to foreclose on our home and relocate to another state following the crisis. At the time, I didn't realize why we had to leave my friends and the place I loved. Trying to understand the trauma my family dealt with actually led me to major in finance -- I don't work in the industry, but knowing how mistakes made in that field screwed so many people over really helped me make sense of the direction my life had gone. Ultimately, it worked out well in the end -- I wouldn't have met my spouse if it weren't for us moving here! -- but it's crazy to think how a few bankers and investors shaped the entire course of my life thus far.

I was doing high end construction in scottsdale AZ when this happened. Still doing construction today. Nobody talks about the bailed-out banks, and the bail-outs allowing them to sit on the repossessed inventory for 5-6 years creating an artificial shortage of available housing to raise home values and kicking off the recovery on false pretenses. Nobody, especially the boomer home owners want to hear or believe it but the current home values a BS and the market cannot sustain its current valuations. The bankers, mortgage companies, appraisers, investors, and corrupt govenment officials within the zoning, and permit offices have destroyed this market, and its all fake.

I didnt know exactly what all the news in 2008 meant, but I always felt a darker vibe from that day onwards. However I did see the symptoms. Everyone in my extended family had a huge house through the mid 2000s, the immediate family was making 6 figures hand over fist, and we went out to eat very often and had trips to New York and Florida on a semi-regular basis, we even had several new Ford SUVs and a RAM. All of this was cut short after 08. Everyone else either downgraded to a smaller house, got an apartment, or moved in with various members. We were one of the few who kept our home, but the recreational family activities went poof. We went down to a used Explorer and we stopped flying unless necessary. I want to give my future children the kind of childhood I had, but the way things are that just wont happen, if i even have them. Not only the economy, but the culture feels darker. I could go on but things just aren't the bleeping same.

I started my senior year of university when the 2008 crash happened. When I graduated in 2009, I was $30k in debt and no one wanted to hire new college grads (especially if you weren't already employed!). I spent months looking for work and ended up taking part-time jobs. My resume looked like complete trash. It permanently ruined my career prospects.

I was 27 in 2008 and was working at an investment bank in downtown Manhattan near Wall St. It was a nightmare. Everyday you wake up to the news of another 300k to 500k people being laid off for months. The list of banks failing and shutting down just kept growing. Occupy Wall Street movement was right outside our doors. Under all the pressure, some ppl took there own lives. My firm said nothing, and we as employees were scared. I was paralyzed to make any major financial decisions as the recession dragged on year after year I thought I was next. It turns out, the investment bank I worked for never got involved in MSBs or any risky products for that matter, and they didn’t over hire so no one lost their job. It was a miracle.

30:23 "Lets hope corporations don't all default due to a systemic shock" Coming from after the svb collapse, this is a very real and terrifyingly accurate prediction

I was 16 in 2008. Went to school and worked at home, doing nails, hair to others, was doing really well.. As a 16 years old i could afford everything.. My mum didn't paid me the bus to school or lunch, because i didn't wanted her to.. Then came the crash.. My skills didn't matter, as the "luxury cosmetic industry" was the least that mattered.. So in about 3 months my salary went about 90% down.. Half of my hometown lost their jobs.. It was really impactful.. Somehow i managed to finish school without asking money anyone.. Then i went abroad.. There wasn't a lot better, but i managed to save, invest, build without credit.. I struggled to get in a position where i don't need to relay on my paycheck, but i still work.. 2008 was the hardest time right at begging of my life, and i really fear it deeply..

In 2008 I did ok. I was in my early 20s, I had a stable job, though I was still living with my parents, i didn't have much in the way of savings or investments to lose. So I was missed by the worst bits of the crash. But it's been the period since 2008 that has really affected me. All those things I am expected to have done by now (late 30s going into my 40s), e.g. have a house etc. I can't do and not sure I ever will be able to. I've never earned anything close to what I was promised by education and society pre-2008. I've watched everything get worse and yet the people responsible for 2008 have been allowed to continue making things worse with absolutely no repercussions. I am fed up and tired of it all. I am fed up of being told that the economy is doing wonderful while I have to second guess whether I can afford a bar of chocolate. I am tired of the fact that the average person has been thrown aside while massive corporations are able to get away with destroying everything in the name of profit. 2008 was a wake up for me. It prompted me to start learning more about how society and the economy work. And to learn just how utterly screwed up it all is.

In 2008 I was 20 years into paying down my mortgage. I lost my job, then my unemployment ended and then my 401K disappeared. No jobs, not at McDonald's. I had little to no debt, never a late payment on anything when I had to file for bankruptcy protection. I had a college degree and I became homeless. I knew well educated people (PhD and Masters) working in a Kinko's copy store. High level IT tech's were taking jobs to become the receptionist for $10 an hour. Many were leaving home to head out to work in the oil fields, living in tents and their trucks, looking to take a shower any where they could find one. Every few weeks they'd fly home to see their family and then back out they went. That's was life then, and here we go again. Only now they say this will be far, far worse than 2008.

In spite of how everyone is frightened and calling the crash, there is already an excessive amount of demand waiting to absorb it, which is another reason it's less likely to happen that way. This forecast was not made in 2008, at least not by the general public, as I will explain below. The ownership rate peaked in 2004, according to the other comment. We reached a peak in the second quarter of 2020 and are currently at the median level. From 2008 to 2012, it fell by 3%, and in the second quarter of 2020, it dropped from 68 to 65.

Having grown up in Australia, I remember when the GFC happened, but I don't remember us being hit particularly hard. I did some reading and it turns out Australia due to some really savvy economic management by the government at the time, was by far the most successful nation during the GFC, in fact we actually had economic growth during that period. I remember seeing our currency go from being worth 0.70 USD to 1.30 USD, which was fantastic lol

My experience of 2008-2009 was, I had my first corporate job as an IT analyst on March 08. Being so young I committed all my loyalty to the company thinking they'll have my back. By 2009, they decided to do "restructuring" and I was told that my particular role would no longer exist, and asked if I had any suggestions for how I can fit into any other role. There was no other role. It was just their way of trying to get rid of me without having to pay compensation. That's when I learned there's no such thing as loyalty when working for any company. Anyway, amazing documentary. Back then I found it difficult to understand the 2008 crisis. Quite lucky that we have a channel like ColdFusion.

Finally some recognition for people who lived through this. Important years of my life were a hard struggle. Even a job as a garbage collector was hard to get.

I had "quit" my job in 2002 (I was a programmer contractor, and I wasn't as hungry to take on new work), and started day-trading. I was doing pretty well until the bottom dropped out in 2008. Fortunately, I had big unsecured loans and some residual equity, so I just bought stuff like a new (old) home and then filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, keeping my 401K & IRAs intact.

I’m portuguese, and yes, we’re still feeling the impact of 2008 here. We’ve been trying to get back on our feet, but I fear it’s taken too long and we won’t be fine yet, when the next crisis happens (I think it’s close). Anyway, the best we can do is to try to make a true difference in our lives and in the world, and that might, hopefully, be enough to get us through the tough times. Great video, you’re doing a great service to the world!

2008 :: Sydney Australia, I graduated Tafe, got into IT then within a month we were all let go and no jobs besides retail. I ended up going into a retail job for 6 years as I went to uni to get a Comp Sci degree. It was stressful, I thought my career was on track but when all the opportunities dried up, it hit me so hard mentally. Because I was considered older than most graduates by the time I graduated, I couldn't find a decent grad job as a foot in the door. I'm doing a lot better now, but 2008 really shook me and many others. Yes I have a roof over my head and I'm careful with my money but life just went by and I never really lived it, I just survived week by week, stressing about uni, work and money, no friends, no relationships, just stress.

I was 24 in 2008, and I was in construction at the time. I got into construction as soon as I graduated in 2000, and everything was great, tons of work, lots of money to be made. Looking back I can see the slowing and eventual drop of the economy. But it kinda started in 2006 with maybe a week here or there without any work, then as time rolled on it would turn into 2 weeks with no work and so on. Even with little gaps without work, my wife and I had money in the bank. In 2008, I was without work for almost 6 months, I definitely waited too long to move into something else, but I honestly assumed everything would come roaring back, it never did. We still to this day live paycheck to paycheck. My brother is still in construction and is in far worse shape than me, but he's much older than me and doesn't have a choice. Videos like this bring the animosity and hatred back up in me towards the people that did this to us, they walked away with no criminal charges AND millions of dollars. Their greed took so much away from us all. They should never be forgiven.

I was in my sophomore year of college. I had been working at the same Kmart since high school. I remember it closed in April of 2009. My dad got laid off from his job that same month. It was a scary time.

The 2008 recession, it killed a lot of law firms. Clients couldn’t pay their bills. Attorneys were let go. Paralegals worked twice as hard and attorneys took on more administrative and marketing responsibilities. Secretarial positions were eliminated. Many of my neighbors foreclosed. …. I focused on debt reduction and retiring early.

Granddad who survived the first Great Depression said that 2008 should have been the start of the second Great Depression except the money printing and bailouts saving the full on catastrophe from happening as it did. In his opinion all of that government effort only would delay the same kind of depression he saw and that nobody had actually saved anything. He got increasingly worried about things before he passed and he told me that what I would live through would be more like his era than my dads.

It's heartbreaking to read the comments on this documentary video, so many childhoods destroyed, some many dreams crushed, and to think that a small group of people profited from this and actually set it in motion.

In 2008 I was in my earning years prime....self employed for the last 33 years and well established...my business income in 2008 got cut in half and cut in half again in 2009....I had to park my 2 dump trucks and let my 2-20 year veterans go there was just not enough work to keep my people working. In 2010 I went back to work in the field for a business I used to manage. My income was what my expense account used to be...about 30k. The only thing that saved me was I hated debt. so I paid everything off as soon as I could and was a good saver. So when the down turn came I just tightened. I was not an investor in the stock market...I invested in myself, I owed nothing to nobody.

One of the problems with printing all this money is it isn’t real. It just increases the money supply and obviously decreasing the value of the existing money out there. It does nothing to help in real terms. It might for the first few months seem to make things better than it makes them worse. It’s really logic. I’m not sure why more people don’t talk about the federal reserves money printing it’s a huge problem in my eyes

I was very young, 11 y/o, but my dad was laid off during the crisis, and many of my peers experienced similar. My mother was a stay at home mom my whole life up until that point. At that young age I became hyper-aware of what everything cost, my family became food insecure. The trauma of it lasted well in to my college years, where I felt like I couldn't even buy myself food, I always had to save as much money as possible. The stress of it also destroyed my parents' marriage. I have always wanted kids, but I will not have them until I have substantial runway. My parents generation had the mindset of "it will just work out", and they don't seem to understand mine and my husband's hesitancy to start a family before achieving absolute financial security, I guess because they conveniently forget that the 2008 crisis was very much a part of our formative years.

The crisis in Greece affected us in between 2011-2013. I had a little RC hobby shop I've opened it in late 2008 and it was thriving up until 2012. I closed my shop with debt in 2014 and gone through a hard depression because of that. I was only 25 when I opened it and saw my dreams crash. Now I'm 38 and still struggling.

What is not mentioned is that many people who were not sub-prime borrowers were sold sub-prime mortgages. Things were fine until it readjusted beyond what my aged mother's annuity could pay. Right from the beginning the banks blamed the borrowers when it was the banks that designed a debt trap.. The banks paid no penalty but 14 million people lost their home and rent went sky high!

I have been following your channel for quite some time now and I have to say, your detailed approach to every topic really sets your videos apart from everything else available on RU-vid. Keep it going CF👏🏽👏🏽

I was only a child in 2008, my relative owned his own mortgage company. He went from making roughly 100,000$ a year in the early 2000s to making millions a year by 2007. By 2009 every car he had was repod, his house was foreclosed, he lost everything. My experience seeing that is the reason I got my degree in economics. I just pray the average person never has to go through this again, but we probably will.

I had just graduated college in a field that was and is recession-proof. Unfortunately, the collapse of people's retirements brought some folks back from retirement and I spent the next six years putting in job applications. I had to move out of state to get my first job. The move was expensive but then so was getting my professional license in the new state which did not have a compact agreement.

"There was money to be made, and life was good" that hit home

I was far to young to have remembered exactly what was happening but I do remember my parents reactions. Where once we had the means to go on family trips every weekend in years prior, we slowly stopped going out as much, we were eating at home more, my father in particular seemed stressed out all the time (he was an architect for a home builder). Finally one day in 2009 we were told we had to leave the home I grew up in and move into a smaller one in the Orlando area and where we had previously held a mortgage, we would now be renting. My family would ultimately split apart a couple years later and I'm sure the financial crises was a contributing factor in that considering how stressed out my father in particular was all the time. Now as a college student, its just an interesting period for me to study and understand considering how impactful it has been on my life.

"You can't model human behaviour with math"....very deep!

In the early 80’s I grew up fearing my Dad would lose the farm and his UAW manufacturing job. I lost one job in 2003, another in 2009, and had numerous contract jobs between 2010 and 2015, including one in Jackson, MS. I’ve lived in an apartment my whole adult life except for 18 months in 2004, and I had my arm twisted to buy it. I expect to have to look for a new job this year.

Bro you're tracks while listening to this are so thought provoking and deep. Perfect study music or deep thinking music. Puts me in a whole different state of mind.

My team was outsourced in 2009. I was in IT as a Release Engineer making nearly 6 figures. Life went south soon after. Lost my apt. Brother lost his business. Dad's ALZ accelerated. We sold the family home in 2010. Dad passed in 2016. Brother passed last year. We can tie a lot of our life's downturn to two things: 2009 crash of course, but secondly and most importantly, not preparing. Around 2014 I bought a few bitcoin but never kept an eye on it due to family trauma, care giver stress, etc. Real shame. Still struggling now but thankfully I kept my wits and haven't given up. Mom is with me and is well considering. All the other men in my family are gone. 50th and 80th birthday coming up.

I grew up around this crisis, I was 4 years old in 2008 and what this video explains puts my childhood into a lot of context. The financial crisis couldn’t have come at a worse time for my family. My dad had just left the army and was starting education, my mum had been a stay at home parent for me and my little brother and was just starting about getting back into work. They had bought a house using practically all of my dad’s wages, so when the crisis happened we had nothing but a house which was practically worthless at the time as it had (and still has!) negative equity, and nobody was willing to buy real estate from them. I vividly remember only being able to eat meat once a week during our roast dinners, as we couldn’t afford more. Jam sandwiches, random veg stew and plain or ketchup pasta was eaten a lot. I remember when I was about 6 (Around 2010) my dad taking me to Burger King for my birthday and having to sneak a sandwich in as he couldn’t afford to buy anything for himself. It makes me really appreciate both of them, as even though they were definitely struggling they managed to hide it from me and my brother and I had a decent childhood, despite the instances of crushing poverty in my family and in my neighbourhood. Because of this experience I had as a young kid, I am now extremely cautious with my money. I have issues around money anxiety and buying non essentials for myself, as I feel guilty for buying them. I hope this gives some perspective into how this affected not only adults, but even young kids.

I do remember the channel from back then. And I love how you really keep the channels identity over those years will still evolving your content creation. Interesting and complex topic as always ;)