60 thoughts on “Blog #110 – Oral Interviews about the Great Recession”

1. Nolan Kamoo June 7, 2018 at 11:54 pm

   Blog #110: Oral Interview about the Great Recession

   What is your name? How old were you in 2008?
   “My name is Ray Kamoo, I was 45 years old in 2008.”

   What is your strongest memory of the Great Recession? Why is this your strongest memory?
   “My strongest memory was watching on the news the collapse of the big banks. The entire financial sector, along with the housing sector, seem to melt down.”

   How did your child’s lives (meaning you) change during the Recession?
   “I don’t think my children felt it cause they didn’t understand what was going on. [Restates question] No, because I wasn’t very heavily invested in that sector. I mean everyone felt it because it affected the entire economy, but I wasn’t overweight in the financial sector or in mortgages or anything like that.”

   Did you know any family members or friends directly affected by the bank closings, foreclosures, layoffs, etc? How were they affected by the Recession?
   “No, I didn’t know anyone in that industry.”

   Did you or anyone you know have to leave their homes b/c of foreclosure? How did that feel to move everything?
   “No, I didn’t know anybody personally.”

   Did you or anyone you know lose their job during this time period? How long were they out of work? How did you make ends meet during that time period?
   “No, I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t know anyone who worked specifically in those industries.”

   Were you aware of the subprime mortgages that were being done at that time? What were your feelings about them? Why?
   “Yes, because, years before that, I had a cousin who was in the mortgage industry and she told me about the subprime issues and how people with an inability to make payments were being given loans by banks that shouldn’t be getting loans. I thought it was horrible because people were going to get set up, they were going to lose their savings and they were overextending themselves because they were getting into things that they couldn’t afford…and the banks knew it, but they lent them money anyways.”

   How did your family feel about the government bailout of banks and investment / insurance companies? Why?
   “Oh, I thought it was horrible. I didn’t agree with Obama that these industries are too big to fail. Some banks folded and some others were rescued and I just didn’t think that was fair. I just didn’t think market forces should dictate what happens.”

   How did your family feel about the threat of Chrysler and General Motors potentially closing? What did they feel about the auto company bailouts? Why?
   “That, those are market forces. I don’t think the banks, I don’t think the government should have gone in and bailed them out.”

   Did you take advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program or the home refinance programs offered by Congress?
   “No, didn’t take advantage of any of them.”

   Is that because it didn’t affect you?
   “Correct.”

   Did anyone you know of take advantage of these programs?
   “No one that I was aware of.”

   [No question prompt]
   “Going back to your earlier question about rescuing General Motors, I didn’t want to see people lose their jobs, I just didn’t think it was fair that one industry would get rescued, while other industries would go bankrupt and the government wouldn’t help them. There was no parody.”

   Did your investments take a major hit during the Recession? How did that change your plans or make you feel? Why?
   “I mean, everyone’s investments were affected to some degree, but I was pretty well diversified and I didn’t have any stocks in the banking industry or even the auto industry. I was in other sectors that were probably affected to some degree, but I didn’t take a great loss.”

   Who do you think is to blame for the Great Recession? Why?
   “Well, i think the banks are to blame and I think it’s greedy homeowners. People living outside of their means. People want to live a lifestyle that they simply can’t afford, so they’re in the wrong there and the banks were in the wrong because they allowed for that to happen instead of denying them and saying ‘you don’t have enough as collateral for your mortgage, they went ahead and offered these people these incredibly sized mortgages when they shouldn’t of, so they’re both equally to blame.”

   Now that it’s been almost 10 years since the Recession, how do you think America has changed since then? Why?
   “Well, federal regulations were put in place to protect consumers by these predator banks, but the current Obama administration is rolling back some of these safeguards, so i think history is going to repeat itself soon enough. During Obama’s administration, it was during his administration that these financial rules were put in place.”

   Interviewer Thoughts
   I agreed with everything that Mr. Kamoo said. As I was only five or six years old at this time, I can’t say I have any particular memories of this historic series of events. In addition, as a young child, I don’t even remember any of the news stories or conversations surrounding the Great Recession. Thinking back, it was probably a big deal and the news channels were probably uncovering information about it constantly. Regardless, I did agree a lot with one of the answers to the interview questions. Specifically, I also blame both the homeowners and the banks for the problem. I’m not sure how equal the blame should be, but there was definitely fatal mistakes made on both sides that set the Great Recession into effect. Every event leads back to one thing, money. Even in this case, the only reason subprime mortgages came into effect is because investors were still looking for investing opportunities from the mortgage lenders and mortgage dealers when there was no responsible people left to give one to. On a side note, after watching the movie The Big Short, not only was the entire premise behind the Great Recession uncovered to me, but also the emotional side effects this took on millions of people. Not only did I begin to understand how the events occurred, but also how that affected many people and created this deep rooting problem. Overall, I think this blog really helped out because I got to listen to a perspective from someone other than me and hear life experience from someone who lived through the events at an age where these types of things were prevalent, not just the child I was at that time period.
2. Dylan Cohen June 8, 2018 at 12:15 am

   Dylan: Hi. Who are you?

   Karen: Im Karen Newman. Dylan Cohen’s Mother.

   Dylan: How old were you in 2008?

   Karen: Seriously. Hahaha. I was born in 1960.

   Dylan: What is your strongest memory of the Great Recession?

   Karen: The strongest memory is that uh people were losing their businesses, they were losing their homes, and I in particular, I was losing some of my endorsement deals which were considered kind of extra, unnecessary spending with different companies.

   Dylan: Why is this your strongest memory?

   Karen: Because I lost income. Because it affected me immediately, there was no gradual fall into this, it just like happened immediately.

   Dylan: How did your child’s lives change during the Recession?

   Karen: How did it change. Well, their mother became more stressed, because what I was used to making (food) had changed literally overnight. So, things changed, I couldn’t afford extra stuff, ya know? Trips and so forth.

   Dylan: Did you or anyone you know lose their job during this time period? How long were they out of work?

   Karen: Yes. I lost a lot of my endorsement deal and even now it’s been difficult to get them back. Also I know have some friends who lost their typical jobs, they had to regroup and actually go back to college and learn other skills and basically take jobs that were beneath them just to earn any kind of pay at all.

   Dylan: Were you aware of the sub-prime mortgages that were being done at that time?

   Karen: I was and It didn’t really affect us because we weren’t gonna mess with the house situation. We kinds rode with the flow you know, rode the wave on that and we didn’t do anything about it. We waited and it was the right thing to do because it ultimately came back down, years later.

   Dylan: What were your feelings about them?

   Karen: Um, you know what, It felt like we were being taken advantage of. Just like when gas prices go up, it just feels like it’s out of your control. You don’t really have a say in it, there’s nothing you can do about it so you just had to adjust.

   Dylan: How did your family feel about the government bailout of banks and investment / insurance companies?

   Karen: My family was plit. There were some that felt like that was the thing to do and there were some that were just like sort of rebels. And so my family was pretty much split between the two. Those guys just felt like criminals to some of us and to others it just felt like the right thing to do. Like the Hatfield and McCoys.

   Dylan: How did your family feel about the threat of Chrysler and General Motors potentially closing? What did they feel about the auto company bailouts?

   Karen: This was huge and this was extremely personal to our family because my dad worked for GM for years. He was a pricing analyst for them for years and years and years and years. However GM, when the recession began, GM started to pull some of those retirement benefits away so my dad lost all of his retirement and it affected us personally, we were very angry.

   Dylan: Thank you for your time, uh do you want a written transcript?

   Karen: No I know you so im good.

   Dylan: Great!

   It was really weird hearing about all of the stuff that happened to us during the recession. I knew that not much had happened to my mom my sister and me during that period because we’ve never talked about it before and because other than the usual move we did every one to three years we did while my mom was single, we didn’t move around a lot and nor did our family. At the age of six I really didn’t know anything about the recession at the time but my mom makes it sound like the loss of endorsements was a major hit to our income, even with money coming in from singing for the Red Wings. What surprised me the most was the how my Grandfather lost his retirement benefits. Coming from a corporation, I would totally expect GM to do something like this. To me, it sounds like a very scummy thing to do. I never knew that my grandparents lost their retirement money surprisingly. When my grandfather was around, he and my grandmother had lived in various condos and around the time of the recession had moved to and back from Florida. My grandmother now lives with my aunt and uncle but only because she doesn’t want to live alone. If I had to guess, because they lost their retirement money, their kids gave them money.
3. Nicole Bastian June 8, 2018 at 12:19 am

   For this topic, I chose to interview my dad, Tom Bastian, who was 43 years old in 2008. Tom’s strongest memory of the Great Recession was how life felt to be the same with the surroundings but yet how difficult it was on our family financially. Tom remembers when we bought a cottage in Caseville 4-5 years prior thinking how you can’t go wrong with a house – we’ll that proved not be an accurate statement. But, we were able to rent to offset the mortgage by seasonally renting – about the only positive thing that came out of that. This was his strongest memory because it was something that impacted him and our family as a whole. During the recession my sister’s and I’s life changed as well. Tom said that “we tried to maintain somewhat of a regular lifestyle for the kids, our older daughter, 10 at the time, bared the brunt of “can’t haves” such as Birthdays, Holidays, no vacations, etc. By the time our youngest, 6 at the time, was 10 – finances had improved and it had a lot less impact on her.” Regarding personal finances directly affecting friends and family, Tom said that “personal finances are often very guarded and not shared, so if there were experiences with family and friends, like me – it wasn’t disclosed”. Tom shared that he was not aware of anyone having to leave their homes because of foreclosure. Tom said that “because the housing market was hit so hard, I think lenders tried to extend terms to keep people in their homes. Also, I believe there was some Federal help available as well”. Tom did not encounter or become aware of anyone close to me losing their job. He did note that the impact was felt greatly as it relates to commissionable jobs. Although, he did see the struggles of his employer, where they were in the midst of a capital equipment purchase which stopped mid-way through site preparations and resulted in our company merging with another just to stay open. When asked if he was aware of the subprime mortgages that were being done at that time and his feelings about them, Tom said, “A mortgage is likely the biggest bill a person will have, we take pride in owning a home. Sub-prime Mortgages never really came across my radar because we managed to stay ahead of any foreclosure by using savings. Further, when the recession was happening, I was always optimistic of change if I could control my destiny. In retrospect, I would do things differently as “assets” aren’t as important as retirement savings”. Tom said that his/our family “felt there seemed to be a parachute for many business entities, but not for the middle-class families” about government bailout of banks and investment/insurance companies. When asked how our family felt about the threat of Chrysler and General Motors potentially closing? What did they feel about the auto company bailouts, Tom said, “this is very controversial, the “too big to fail” mentality. So, while the automotive bailouts helped save thousands of jobs it also destroyed many of their smaller vendors who didn’t receive the same support. At the end of the day, had GM closed for example – some other company would had gotten an opportunity”. Tom said that he didn’t. Tom explained that, “as the recession came upon us I was directly impacted since I was commission based – so for the first year or so we could manage, after that it became harder and harder and we fell behind. I own two homes and both were upside down, we were late on both and it wasn’t getting better as fast as I thought it would. I tried to maintain a positive, hard work ethic to reverse the trend and produce greater income, unfortunately I was also in an industry (Commercial Printing) that was failing and was forced to make a career change and start over”. Tom said that all of our investments took a big hit during the recession, “we had amassed a fair amount of debt as our incomes were good. We tried to maintain a lifestyle for the kids while paying down debt. We ended up taking more from savings & investments then we originally thought we’d need to. This alone was one of the saddest parts of the recession for us”. Tom didn’t know who he would blame for the recession. Lastly, now that it has been almost 10 years since the Recession, Tom said that next time he will be quicker to react and be more cautious about managing debt and spend.
   Due to the fact that I was only about 8 during the Recession, I don’t remember much. Although, I do vaguely remember our family having struggles, but not knowing/understanding it completely. Overall, I found interviewing my dad to be very interesting because it makes me realize what those vague memories really were like and it helps me understand that struggles our family has gone through. Also, it helps me appreciate even more what we have today because it shows how hard my parents have worked. This interview helped me to learn more about my family and our ups and downs (even if it is regarding the economy) and better understand the Recession as a whole.
4. Philip Bradbury June 8, 2018 at 9:01 am

   For this blog I interviewed my dad, Fred Bradbury. To give a little context, my dad grew up in Boston in a religious and republican household, where his dad grew up in, and suffered through the Great Depression. He had 3 brothers (2 now). My dad and my uncle are both very invested in the stock market. They have many shares in a wide range of companies. Because of this, my dad usually supports politicians that will help the economy and stock market grow, who are usually republicans. He is a project manager for Dell, but is very close partners with his customers at Ford. Finally, my dad tends to be pretty sarcastic, so don’t take all of what he says at face value :).
   What is your strongest memory of the Great Recession? Why is this your strongest memory?
   My strongest memory is the banking crisis with the failure of a major us bank as well as my customer ford motor laying thousands of people off. The project I was in at Ford ground to a slow trickle. We had to downsize our staff by 60% or more. My role as a project manager turned into a part time role of project manager and individual contributor. I was one of the lucky ones.
   Did you know any family members or friends directly affected by the bank closings, foreclosures, layoffs, etc? How were they affected by the Recession?
   Yes. I knew people affected. I had friends that were getting laid off and I had to reduce staff on my project and lay off some of our contractor technicians and during the housing crunch one guy who worked for me had to walk away from his house and let the bank foreclose. It was simply worth far too less compared to the bank note.
   Who do you think is to blame for the Great Recession? Why?
   The democrats are to blame. It happened on their watch. My limited understanding is the banks were investing in vehicles that were high reward but high risk. On the mortgage side lenders we were giving people mortgages that they shouldn’t have so when the recession hit and people lost jobs they defaulted.
   Now that it’s been almost 10 years since the Recession, how do you think America has changed since then? Why?
   It’s great. Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in years thanks to President Trump and the stock market is at all time highs due to the tax cuts and regulation rollbacks he put into place. Finally he is challenging other countries on the trade deficits. America is better off now that it was then. Some regulations were good like the ones on the banks that limit the risks they can take with deposits. It’s made our banking industry much stronger compared to some Europe banks right now. It’s allowed us to begin increasing interest rates instead of keeping them artificially low like they’ve been for the past 10 years.
   Personal Reflection: I don’t remember much of the Recession as I was just 5 years old. My Grandpa was born in the Great Depression and had really struggled for quite some time. Some of the same values that my grandpa had during the time I can still see in my dad and his brothers. I would imagine that my dad carrying these values would have better prepared him for an event like this, but it surprised me that the main reason that he was able to keep his head above water was by staying employed. Today, my family talks a lot about politics and controversial policies and through these talks, we all share ethical ideas that contradict some policies that Trump and the government are making today, and through these talks I realize that he doesn’t worry too much about foreign policy, or personal actions by politicians, but he cares about the economy and overall well being of the majority of the U.S.
5. Graham June 8, 2018 at 11:04 pm

   Oral 2008 Great Recession Interview
   Graham Hupp

   What is your name? How old were you in 2008?
   A: “My name is Jeff Hupp, and I was thirty-nine in 2008”

   2. What is your strongest memory of the Great Recession? Why is this your strongest memory?
   A: “I was at my startup workplace gas station TV (GSTV) and the CFO was watching, cable news and we were watching the stock market tumble in real time and i was really concerned because i was working for a startup and not an established company and I wasn’t sure how everything was going to end up, financially, for the United States and for me personally.”

   3. How did your child’s lives (meaning you) change during the Recession?
   A: “Because you guys were young, I do not think it changed very much. You guys were six and four at the time so I don’t think your lives changed very much.”
   4. Did you know any family members or friends directly affected by the bank closings, foreclosures, layoffs, etc? How were they affected by the Recession?
   A: “Yes i did, we had several friends who had walked away from their mortgages and several other who walked away from their jobs.”
   5. Did you or anyone you know have to leave their homes b/c of foreclosure? How did that feel to move everything?
   A: I think they felt bad about it, some of them, a friend of mine from high-school lost many houses he probably lost six or seven properties because of the financial crisis and the mortgage and he’s still, to this day, digging out of it.

   6. Did you or anyone you know lose their job during this time period? How long were they out of work? How did you make ends meet during that time period.
   A: I did have some friends that did lose their jobs, I think some of them list them for a year or so. And for us, my work cut my pay by about close to half and we just cut down on expenses and investments and just did our best.

   Reaction:
   Since at the time I was too young to even fathom the scale and effects of this recession it is nice to finally receive a perspective about the situation especially from a family member so close to me as he first-hand experienced this situation along with the perspective with an infant like state company slowly building itself up and just the colossal wave of effect it had on my family as my mom was still home caring for my sibling and I making my father the sole breadwinner during the time period. This interview also made me open my eyes as the world and especially the economy is fragile and we must protect it with the utmost delicacy as it could be “destroyed” at any time.
6. Abby N June 8, 2018 at 11:25 pm

   For this assignment I interviewed my dad, who was 41 at the time of the recession.

   1: How did the recession affect companies?
   A: The recession was like one big, huge chain reaction. Because one thing did this, another did this, and another did that and the whole thing came toppling down. Because the economy was struggling, production was down, which made the layoffs huge. Companies had to foreclose and some even had to relocate to other places where production cost was cheaper and demand was high. This left a lot of people out of work because you couldn’t just follow a company everywhere. This is why the layoffs were so huge.

   2: The recession happened 10 years ago, do you think people are worried or acknowledge the progress?
   A: I think people realize what progress we’ve made and how we have grown since the recession. Although the progress is relevant and important, I still feel like people are almost holding their breath. The recession happened so fast, it was like one day we were fine and the next day everything came crashing down on us. That’s why I still think people are so wary. If this could happen so fast, what else can? I know I have definitely been more cautious.

   3: If the recession was caused by mortgages, why did companies have to lay off?
   A: That’s another chain reaction. If people could not pay their loans back, they did not have good credit. If they did not have good credit, they could not buy anything that required credit, like cars and other things. This meant that if they could not buy things like cars, the car companies production went down. When production goes down, they don’t need to spend extra money on extra workers they don’t need. This lead to the layoffs. It’s like when you’re at the supermarket and you pull a toilet paper roll out from the bottom and all the toilet paper falls, that was the great recession.

   4: What did you know about the recession at the time?
   A: I knew it was about faulty loans and that people could not pay their loans back. I knew the banks gave out more money and that people’s credit ended up being destroyed because they could not pay the loans and they were stuck in an endless cycle of debt. Because I knew about the banks, I didn’t blame the government.

   5: How did the recession affect you personally?
   A: I was part of the layoffs. I got laid off from my job and had to relocate to Cincinnati in order to keep up our life. I stayed there five out of seven days, and that was hard because I barely saw my family because they were in an entirely different state. Eventually I quit my job in Cincinnati after I found a better one in Michigan.

   Personal reflection: For me, I don’t really remember that much about the recession. Because I was so young, I didn’t talk about my dad losing his job and moving because I thought it was a personal problem that nobody related to. I didn’t realize until years later that it was caused by an economic issue rather than a personal one. It was different, because I didn’t see my dad as often and I was unclear about why he had to move so far away for such a long period of time. Eventually he moved back home, living so far away from the people you are closest to is not a good option. He found an equally good job in Michigan that allowed him to live with us again. It was interesting to find out about the great recession and to learn that my family was affected by it personally. I had never thought I could be stuck in the middle of an economic crisis, but I already was.
7. Charlie Hardy June 8, 2018 at 11:53 pm

   1 What is your name? How old were you in 2008?
   Lillian, and I was 38 years old.
   2 What is your strongest memory of the Great Recession?  Why is this your strongest memory?
   I remember we bought a house in 2002. Your dad was saying that the house was overpriced. It was a tri-level in Southfield with a swimming pool. I remember seeing the house and falling in love with it. Despite your Dad’s hesitations, we got it anyways for about $240k dollars. We stayed there, and I remember at some point your dad kept getting laid off. Though my job was stable, that wasn’t enough to suffice and we lost money that way. In about 2006, we started getting behind in our house notes. Your dad was working a lot of overtime, and we were getting a lot of money, but the value of property in our neighborhood was declining. It didn’t make sense to keep paying a $2k house note on a house worth $100k, so we walked away. That was my strongest memory because of you guys. When you get behind on bills like that, eventually you get evicted. So that’s why it’s probably my strongest memory. It was frightening.
   3 How did your child’s lives (meaning you) change during the Recession?
   I was scared. For you guys and for me. I guess it changed my mindset and let me know that I needed to be more innovative, self sufficient, and that I needed to stop solely relying on someone else for a job, since your dad kept getting laid off and money wasn’t as stable as it could’ve been while we were just relying on someone else to employ and pay us.
   12 Who do you think is to blame for the Great Recession?  Why?
   I think republicans and greedy bankers are to blame. Bankers were giving people loans even though those people had no way to repay the loans. I believe that since this was all done under Bush and a republican administration that the blame for this falls on them.
   13 Now that it’s been almost 10 years since the Recession, how do you think America has changed since then? Why?
   I think we’re heading toward another recession with Trump being in office. If he gets another term, we’ll see the effects of his choices while he was in office. We’ll probably be an isolated country with no allies. The goods we get from other countries won’t be affordable, no one will buy our stuff overseas, and those car manufacturers that were in trouble 10 years ago will probably be in trouble again. The prices of houses are gonna skyrocket again. (I asked her why she thinks this:) Because the banks are given leniency from the government again and we’ll probably start getting bad mortgages again because of that leniency.

   In response to this interview, I wasn’t very surprised. My mom and I have talked a lot about some of the troubles that occurred while i was growing up as a child. Whenever we have financial troubles now, I am always reminded of conversations where we discussed this and that things might change in the future because money is tight right now. I don’t remember much about the recession, probably because I wasn’t aware that it was going on. But, I do remember the day that Obama was elected president because we got to stay home from school. I simply remember having a happy childhood and never being worried about money troubles or what was going on at the time.
8. Adrienne Konopka June 9, 2018 at 3:20 pm

   1.What is your name? How old were you in 2008?

   Nathan Grant Konopka, 35

   2. What is your strongest memory of the Great Recession? Why is this your strongest memory?

   Everybody losing their jobs, because I had a lot of friends that lost their jobs

   3. How did your child’s lives (meaning you) change during the Recession?

   I don’t think that their lives changed very much. I used it as an education opportunity to talk to them about the economy, and in a broad sense about what was going on and how people lost jobs. Thankfully it didn’t have a direct impact on my children.

   4. Did you know any family members or friends directly affected by the bank closings, foreclosures, layoffs, etc? How were they affected by the Recession?

   Yeah I mean especially the layoffs. I had a lot of friends that lost their jobs. I know people that struggled with the mortgage companies because they were upside down on their mortgages. I know of people that had to leave their houses, I think I had one friend that had to, but I knew more of people that had to leave as opposed to people I was close with.

   6. Did you or anyone you know lose their job during this time period? How long were they out of work? How did you make ends meet during that time period?

   I knew a lot of people that lost their jobs. They were out for a while, some as much as a year or more. I was lucky enough to keep my job, as did my wife.

   7. Were you aware of the sub-prime mortgages that were being done at that time? What were your feelings about them? Why?

   I thought it was a bad idea that banks were purposely giving out mortgages to people that were credit risks. I didn’t know the extent of the banks involvement until after. They were selling to them and making money off the fact that people were defaulting on them.

   9. How did your family feel about the threat of Chrysler and General Motors potentially closing? What did they feel about the auto company bailouts? Why?

   We were worried, especially because both my wife and I were involved in the auto industry. I think the bailouts were a good thing. That’s where the term “too big to fail” came in. I think it was a necessary thing to do from my understanding. I’m not a fan that all of the dodd frank regulations that were put into place were being rolled back by the administration, but it seemed like a reasonable compromise.

   I’m realizing how lucky we were that my family wasn’t directly affected by the recession. Neither of my parents lost their jobs, we still had our house, and for the most part everything was good. I feel bad for all of the people that lost their jobs and were unable to find a new one for a long time. I also feel bad for all of the people who lost their home, and wonder what they did. I feel for the families that were directly affected and had their whole way of life changed. There’s a lot that I still don’t understand about the recession, but from my interview with my father it seems to me like the banks were the ones responsible for all of this. They were loaning to people that they knew had a high likelihood of not paying them back. My father doesn’t believe that people have really learned from their mistakes, and I tend to agree. There’s still lots of spending happening, and there was a report that said if every american was hit with a $1000 bill, they wouldn’t be able to pay it.
9. Brenden kashat June 10, 2018 at 12:10 pm

   For this assignment I interviewed my mom.

   1. What is your name? How old were you in 2008?

   A. My name is Karen Kashat and I was 42 in 2008

   2. What is your strongest memory of the Great Recession? Why is this your strongest memory?

   A. My strongest memory of the Great Recession is when I almost lost my job but my good buddy lost his job instead of me. It’s my strongest memory because I made somebody else suffer.

   3. How did your child’s lives (meaning you) change during the Recession?

   A. I don’t really think that my child’s lives changed very much. I doubt they even knew what was going on.

   4.Did you know any family members or friends directly affected by the bank closings, foreclosures, layoffs, etc? How were they affected by the Recession?

   A. Yes, I had friends and family who were laid off. Other than that, no I did not.

   5. Did you or anyone you know have to leave their homes b/c of foreclosure? How did that feel to move everything?

   A. A family friend of ours had to leave because of his wife being laid off. My friend couldn’t support his family all by himself with the income he had so they had to move and buy a new house. They felt really terrible about the whole ordeal. He told me that he wanted to help in any way possible but he couldn’t because of how he was. Everyone around him had helped him get a better job so they are doing well now.

   12.Who do you think is to blame for the Great Recession? Why?

   A. My personal opinion, the blame should be going towards the banks. With my understanding, it is their fault and they allowed this to happen. They are the reason we are even talking about it today.

   Thank you for your Time

   REFLECTION

   I am realizing that I am very lucky that I was only a kid when this whole thing went down. I would have most likely had no idea what to do. I am also very lucky that my family was not directly involved because I would not have wanted anything to happen to them. I was around 7 when this happened and I had no clue what was happening around me. I was very surprised by what my mom was saying. I did not think that my mom felt so harsh towards this subject. My mother also does believe that we have learned our mistakes because if we were able to fix it once, we can do it again.
10. Jacob Ellenbogen June 10, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    Interview with Jennifer Ellenbogen (My Mom)

    Q: What is your strongest memory of the recession?

    A: I remember that because we live in (Metro) Detroit that many people were leaving and leaving and leaving the city, because there were no job opportunities in the Detroit area at all. Not just leaving the city, but also the metro area. I also remember that traffic got better, little things like that.

    Q: Why were people leaving Detroit, was Detroit hit harder than other cities, and if so, why?

    A: Detroit was…well now it does a lot more of the intellectual property stuff, like there is bigger presence of Google and all these other tech companies that have come in, and at the time the city was still transitioning from a more manufacturing type of base, and that was the type of jobs that was really hurt.

    Q: DId you or anyone you know have to leave their homes because of foreclosure?

    A: No, but I know people that bought homes very cheap because of foreclosure. There were homes in some places in Detroit that you could buy for 1 dollar, when the whole was less sum of its parts. One of the biggest problems was that before the recession housing was inflated (the bubble), and so people were buying houses for a lot more than what they are worth. So part of the problem that even we had was that your mortgage was more than your house was worth, and so you couldn’t sell your house. For example, a friend of mine, they couldn’t refinance their house for a very long time because their mortgage was so much more than what their house was worth.

    Q: Were you aware of the subprime mortgages being done up to the recession?

    A: I don’t think I was surprised to hear that because it was so easy to get a mortgage, and you didn’t have to prove much to do it. We were at the time doing construction on our house and it was really easy to get money for the construction. I never thought about them beyond that though because they hadn’t burst yet so I didn’t have much reason to think about them.

    Q: How did you feel about the government bailout of the banks and investment/insurance companies?

    A: Well it’s a complex issue, and I don’t think everyone sees it as complex as it was. I think that the government thought they had to bail all these companies out or the whole economy would collapse, and I think they gave them too much money. I don’t think they punished the people that needed to be punished enough. By bailing out these banks, they didn’t punish the people that were engaging in this risky behavior enough. Not severity wise, but they left too many people who were at fault in leadership positions. I mean only 2 people were arrested for causing the meltdown.

    My reaction to the interview is that I was honestly surprised by some of my mothers opinions. One thing that I know I do internally is that I mix up the Great Recession and the BP oil spill constantly in my head because the oil spill had a much greater direct impact on my life, whereas most of the effects that the recession had on my life were indirect. My mother is a little more fiscally conservative than I realized, and while I thought that many of the financial points she made were valid I found that I disagreed with some of them, but I didn’t think that this interview was the time to debate this. It’s weird to think that I know what I do about the great recession now considering that I do actually remember some of its events, yet my knowledge of it is not at all based on memories. That means that its in that weird zone where I still need to study it to understand it but I’m being confused by my own misleading memories that give me false information through the lens of a 5 or 6 year old during the time of the recession. It’s really fascinating to me.