Unequal by Design: A Historical Perspective on Economic Inequality Across Communities

December 11, 2025

Month 8: The 2007-08 Financial Crisis and the Widening Wealth Gap

The eighth section of the Economic Inequality series dives into the two ways the 2007–08 financial crisis widened inequality: (1) predatory subprime lending and the geographic concentration of foreclosures, and (2) the role of student loan debt on economic mobility. Understanding the roots of predatory lending, the populations most affected, and the long-term effects is crucial to analyzing how the financial crisis contributed to the ongoing racial and economic divide and proper policies to remedy the negative impact.