What 2008 crisis followed the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble and major bank failures?

The 2008 crisis that followed the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble and major bank failures was the Global financial crisis.

U.S. house prices declined after years of rapid growth, causing losses on subprime mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. Financial institutions around the world held or relied on these assets. The failure of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008 intensified panic and froze important credit markets.

Stock markets fell worldwide as investors feared recession, insolvencies, and a breakdown in financial intermediation. Governments and central banks responded with emergency lending, bank recapitalizations, guarantees, interest-rate cuts, and later unconventional monetary policies. The crisis produced the deepest global recession since the Second World War up to that time.

The crisis began before Lehman failed, and it was not caused by a single trading session. In the United States, the Dow reached a pre-crisis closing high in October 2007 before entering a prolonged decline. The term Great Recession usually refers to the economic downturn associated with the financial crisis.