In: Economics
Why did banks and other financial institutions start taking on more risk during the house price bubble?
The housing bubble burst took place in 2008 when banks gave out loans to individuals without checking their credit history or taking appropriate mortgage in return, and people started defaulting on their loans.
These banks and financial institutions started taking more risks by giving out loans to people without checking their credit history, in order to make more money (in the form of interest), compete with each other in making maximum loans and relying on the Fed to bail them out in case of emergency.
This careless attitude of banks in giving out poor quality loans in order to make more money led to more defaults and thus housing bubble burst.