The global financial crisis of 2008 was the
worst of its kind since the Great Depression
of the1930s. It began with the collapse of
subprime mortgage markets in USA and led
to the failure and subsequent merger and/
or government bailout of leading American
financial institutions and enterprises such
as Bear Stearns, AIG, the Federal National
Mortgage Association (FNMA), the
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
(FHLMC), Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Ford
Motor, etc. The financial crisis rapidly spread
to other countries around the world as the
credit crunch began to hit the ‘real’ economy
by the end of that fateful year.