Inside the Meltdown

Watch the video answer questions

  1. How much money did Hank Paulsen and Ben Bernanke think was needed to unclog the credit markets?
  2. What was the rumor that caused Bear Sterns stock to fall?
  3. What investment caused Bear Sterns so much trouble?
  4. What did rising house prices create?
  5. Where was Bear’s CEO when the firm was crashing?
  6. How often did Bear rollover their loans? What are the risks of doing this?
  7. What was the last chance for Bear?
  8. What is a credit default swap?
  9. Why was Bear Stern’s failure so critical?
  10. What do bankers fear most?
  11. Should tax payers provide loans for investment banks? Why or why not?
  12. What is moral hazard? How many bailouts has the US government done in the last 20 years?
  13. Should bailouts be painful or beneficial to bailed out firms?
  14. What was the purpose of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Are they examples of profit maximizing firms or government run bureaucracies?
  15. If you knew the government would bail you out if you took on too much credit, would you take on more or less debt?
  16. If the government bailed out Lehman brothers, would more or less firms need bailouts?
  17. What happened to Lehman Brothers?
  18. What investment did AIG make regarding Lehman Brothers?
  19. Now that we are almost 2 years from the crisis, did government action really save anything or just prolong the pain?
  20. Was this the first time the Federal Reserve has recommended a bailout from taxpayers?
  21. What is capital injection?
  22. Now that we are two years from the crisis, do you think the economy slowdown caused the banking crisis or did the banking crisis cause the economic slowdown?
  23. Do you think the US will bailout firms in the future ‘to restore confidence’? Will the bailouts be larger or smaller in the future?
  24. Does the government still own private firms? Is this good or bad? Why?

Sample Solution