The origins of the 2008 financial crisis should be traced to the 1980s

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 led to a significant fall in GDP in the US and the UK which took years to recover from and left a legacy of sluggish growth. In new research, Nicholas Snowden examines the lead up to the financial crisis, and traces its origins back to developments during the 1980s. He argues that after the mid-1980s, corporations began to prioritise shareholder returns above capital investment, and that this dearth of investment spending was offset by a consumer spending boom fuelled by lower interest rates, which in turn led to the financial meltdown.