Problem:
The U.S. financial markets have experienced a storm unseen since the Great Depression (some say worse than that). Losses in the financial sector wiped out much of the liquidity in the U.S. credit industry, further affecting companies' ability to borrow and continue operations. The ensuing recession has had a staggering effect on the world economy, leading to millions of job losses and causing national governments to intervene to keep the world financial systems from collapsing altogether. Because our objective in this book is to understand and learn about computer-supported decision making, we will not dig deep into financial aspects of what led to the subprime mortgage crisis. Many of the following Web sites do a good job of explaining or illustrating what happened. Review the material at the following sites (and thousands of others like these):
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis
Read as many of these stories as you can. They paint a picture of a complete disregard for risk, irrational assumptions, lying, pure and simple greed, and follow-the-crowd mentality (groupthink). It will be a good learning experience to discuss the crisis in context of the decision-making model described in this chapter.
Questions for the Case
Question 1. Apply principles of the intelligence phase of Simon's decision-making model, and discuss major problems that led to the subprime mortgage crisis.
Question 2. Given what has already taken place, reapply the intelligence phase principles to determine the current state of the problem.
Question 3. What can you recommend about the crisis now? Apply design and choice phase principles to guide you.
Question 4. What issues will you have to keep in mind as you move your proposed solutions to implementation?