December 27, 2008

The past year sent the finance industry into uncharted territory. The nation saw the largest bank failure ever on record, a near collapse of Wall Street and a government bailout that topped $700 billion.

The subprime meltdown, which reared its head in 2007, became a full-blown national crisis in 2008. The problem extended far beyond home loans made to high-risk borrowers that couldn’t pay up, and fueled a recession that has touched almost every American.