Anatomy of an economic meltdown
How did it get this bad?
For two years, economic turmoil in the United States throbbed from a few areas of isolated distress — dark bruises on a national map that was otherwise unscarred.
Even the deflating housing bubble was confined mostly to areas like California’s inland valleys, Las Vegas and Florida, while manufacturing communities in Michigan and the South struggled to keep workers in their jobs. The Associated Press Economic Stress Map, a new snapshot of our national pain, shows that the economy was hurting, but it didn’t demand a nationwide lifestyle adjustment.
Then came the autumn of 2008. Banks failed, Congress poured billions into hopeful fixes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted, and soon the regional misery began expanding nationwide. Over the next six months, it spread along Interstate 5 in California, spilled out of Michigan into the rest of the Midwest, and sprouted like kudzu throughout the South. Only recently have there been signs that the pace is slowing.
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