The mortgage crash was symptomatic.
It's the damn war <stupid>. (* to borrow for Bill Clinton's election tag-line).
The mortgage market was allowed to go nuts. The GW Bush administration allowed (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, to over finance and exceed the responsible LTV ( loan-to-value) ratios. There was bank fraud in both borrower applications and appraisals. The housing market was manipulated to finance fake prosperity while war debt was piling up on the US national debt. Robust economic activity, or its illusion on the markets, lowers the borrowing interest costs to the government ...
The financially irresponsible borrowers, not being limited by responsible mortgage lenders defaulted, then the house of cards collapsed, The Great Recession <Viola>
The problem is that these mortgages were being sold around the world as pooled securities with false representations of their values stated by rating companies. It was a scam that collapsed and triggered the market crash. Then the top 1% bought up the market after it crashed and made fortunes.
This DJI of 20,000 may crash again soon and the process repeats ...
Bend over and spread your cheeks ...
Trump rally could mark biggest postelection stock market rise since Hoover - MarketWatch