History of the United States II / Unit 17 USH2 2421 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Subprime Mortgages
Captions available
The idea
Banks made high-risk, high-interest subprime mortgages to buyers who often misunderstood their terms and could not make the payments, the anchor records.
In practice
Loans bundled and sold as bonds, separating the lender's interest from the borrower's ability to repay.
Where people slip
The anchor traces securitisation to changes in finance and banking laws in the nineteen nineties and early two thousands.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for History of the United States II