• 1 Background and causeso 1.1 Growth of the housing bubbleo 1.2 Easy credit conditionso 1.3 Sub-prime lendingo 1.4 Predatory lendingo 1.5 Deregulationo 1.6 Increased debt burden or over-leveragingo 1.7 Financial innovation and complexityo 1.8 Credit Ratingso 1.9 Boom and collapse of the shadow banking systemo 1.10 Commodity bubbleo 1.11 Systemic crisiso 1.12 Role of economic forecasting• 2 Financial markets impactso 2.1 Impacts on financial institutionso 2.2 Credit markets and the shadow banking systemo 2.3 Wealth effectso 2.4 Global contagion• 3 Effects on the global economyo 3.1 Global effectso 3.2 U.S. economic effectso 3.3 Official economic projections• 4 Responses to financial crisiso 4.1 Emergency and short-term responseso 4.2 Regulatory proposals and long-term responses• 5 See also• 6 References• 7 External links and further reading