FT Series

The financial crisis in charts

The credit crisis that began to unfold in 2007 reshaped economies, financial markets, politics — even our culture. And it is still unfinished business. The FT is telling the story of the crisis, in charts.

© Gary Neill
Warnings from history that Wall Street ignored

By August 2007 the financial system was in grave danger

The credit crisis did not lead to deleveraging

The debt just moved around

The big reason banks are safer than a decade ago

Institutions rely less on wholesale funding of the kind that seized up in the crisis 

What happened to the ‘too big to fail’ banks?

While some have fallen down the global league table, many are larger today

Five charts showing how millennials are worse off

Americans who came of age around the crisis have fallen behind previous generations

Filmmakers inspired by financial calamity

The Big Short and Inside Job were among the best reviewed movies about the crisis

More from this Series

Nothing like this has happened in 323 years

Financial Times columnists pick their charts of the credit crisis on the decade anniversary

Over $9tn of bonds trade with negative yields

How central banks created the most curious legacy of the financial crisis

The long and winding road to economic recovery

Some countries still have not regained the ground lost in the Great Recession

Whatever happened to the global savings glut?

The pattern of cross-border financial flows has changed since the crisis 

China’s economy is addicted to debt

Beijing’s response to the financial crisis caused asset bubbles it has yet to tackle

US stock valuations have been inflated by the Fed

Financial Times columnists pick their charts of the credit crisis on the decade anniversary

Dealing with the effects of one bubble creating more

From stocks to SWAG and from bonds to bitcoin, many assets look overpriced

Bailout costs will be a burden for years

The US made money on its rescue of the banks, but other countries may not

How income inequality has shifted since the crisis

Differences between, and within, countries vary dramatically

US home ownership fall hits young and minorities hardest

Financial crisis has left fewer Americans on property ladder since 1960s

US government still props up its mortgage market

Reform of housing finance is largest piece of unfinished business from the crisis

How the very richest have fared since the crisis

Their net worth was hit by the stock market slump, but the rebound has been hefty

Low rates had little benefit for ordinary Americans

Loose monetary policy led to share buybacks that enriched mainly the wealthy

Who was convicted because of the financial crisis?

Hundreds have been prosecuted — just not necessarily the ones the public wanted to see

How banks paid for crisis-era misdeeds

Bank of America and JPMorgan top the league table of settlements in the US

Credit crisis led to a bonfire of the acronyms

Securitisation created weapons of financial destruction and has not fully recovered

Bank pay rebounded faster in the US than Europe

CEOs still enjoy great riches, but MBA graduates increasingly prefer other careers

Bankers’ pay closely tied to deregulation

Financial Times columnists pick their charts of the credit crisis on the decade anniversary

Ten years after the crash

The financial crisis brought the global economy to the brink. In this special issue of the FT Weekend Magazine, writers and columnists explore whether enough has been done to stop it happening again