What features of the U.S. financial system facilitated the Great Recession in 2007-2008? Could the crisis have been avoided? If so, how what institutional and systemic changes would have been required to prevent the problems that occurred? How well did financial institutions respond to the crisis? What could the government have done that it did not do to ameliorate the situation? What else could the market sectors and financial institutions have done? Should the government regulate financial markets more stringently, or should the government relax regulations? What do you think will happen to the U.S. economy in the next decade?