ABSTRACT
In the United States and globally, the financial crisis and subsequent recession of 2008–2009 were truly gargantuan by any measure we care to use. As of 2013, corporate profits have recovered, but the middle class isn't even back to where it was in 2007, before the recession started. The credit market for employers and consumers in other realms also dried up, job losses started to mount, the unemployment rate rose to levels not seen since the recession of the early 1980s, and wages remained flat or declined in real value from their already dubious position. Corporate profits have returned to their pre-recession levels. The legislation created and authorized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with an independent budget and an independent director to oversee consumer-lending products like subprime loans and credit cards. The credit market collapse was tied to problems with the subprime mortgage market and the aftermarket for mortgage-backed securities.
