Bookmark this site
A year has passed since the peak of the great financial panic of 2008. Regulators and analysts alike spent much of September pontificating about the economy’s regained stability.
| Debt: Life in Oregon after the bubble |
Thanks to a multitrillion-dollar bailout, much of the financial sector has regained an uneasy equilibrium. Some banks that seemed on death’s door less than a year ago earned record profits this past spring.
But for many individual Americans, 2009 feels a lot like the depression that we supposedly averted. The unprecedented transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the financial industry has done little to improve the prospects of millions of people who have lost their jobs, their homes and much of their wealth. Even their sense of security is gone.
