What name is given to the 2008 global financial-market collapse centered on the failure of Lehman Brothers?

The 2008 global financial-market collapse centered on the failure of Lehman Brothers is called the Global Financial Crisis.

The crisis grew from problems in the United States housing and mortgage markets. Risky mortgages had been bundled into complex securities, and losses spread through banks and investors when property prices fell and borrowers defaulted.

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, becoming the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history at that time. Its failure intensified panic because financial institutions were deeply connected through lending and derivatives.

Governments and central banks responded with emergency lending, bank rescues, interest-rate cuts, and stimulus programs. The crisis is sometimes called the Great Recession, although that term more precisely describes the resulting economic downturn rather than the financial-market breakdown itself.