Introduction The 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis was the largest financial crisis since the end of the Great Depression. It was the actions of individuals and companies that caused this crisis. Because even though it might have been publicized, too many people in authority were making too much money to think deeply about the situation. Therefore, by the time actions were taken to attempt to correct the situation, it was already too late. Trillions of taxpayer dollars have been spent trying to fix the situation caused by the collapse of ethics and responsibility in the private sector. And despite government actions to try to contain the crisis, hundreds of thousands of lives have been negatively affected before, during and after the crisis. years. The biggest warning sign was the amount of credit in the market. Many of the large companies and banks had very little capital and the lack of capital was caused by the real estate bubble. Companies lent too much money to people who couldn't pay it back. And even before people started defaulting on their mortgages, people could see that this was a problem. During a meeting with the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in January 2007, Federal Reserve staff admitted “that they had known about the housing problem three years before” (Dodd). And they weren't the only ones. Back in 2001 there were people who saw the danger posed by subprime mortgages and who were trying to pass laws to stop the bad loans from happening, but no one wanted to list... half of paper... is that standards are now in effect much more rigorous to prevent loans at unaffordable prices from occurring. The economy has improved significantly since 2008. Credit flows at a safe pace and the unemployment rate has fallen to 7.4%. House prices have also started to rise again. The economy is not back to 2007 levels, but it is improving every day. Conclusion The subprime mortgage crisis had a large effect on the economy. It was a man-made crisis and could have been avoided. Lack of ethics played a major role in creating this crisis as it was the root of most of the causes. By making bad loans illegal and lending money to banks so that they are willing to give people affordable credit to spend, the government has helped stimulate the economy. And while there is still much to be done to improve the economy, the situation is nowhere near as bad as it was in the past.