General Environment Forces
The financial crisis and the way that the American people viewed the nation’s financial institutions are two major indirect forces that that Chase bank had to deal with. The financial crisis the US has been dealing with for the past 3 years and is still currently trying to overcome today was triggered in part by the United States banking system (Whitney, 2010); because of this there was a tremendous collapse of some of our major financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and a stock markets plummeting everywhere around us (Whitney, 2010) In many areas, the number of evictions, and foreclosures rose to insane heights; the housing market experienced a huge hit (Whitney, 2010). The financial crisis in 2007 is considered by many economists to be the worst since the Great Depression of 1930 (Pendery, 2009). It has contributed to the failure of many key businesses, the decline in consumer wealth, substantial financial assistances by the United States governments, and a significant decline in economic activity. (Baily, & Elliot, 2009)
The cry out for assistance was heard, “President Bush, in a televised address Friday morning, said the nation's economy is at risk, adding he believed that Congress will move quickly on a bailout proposal.” "We've got a big problem," he said. (Ellis & Sahadi, 2008)
Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary, proposed an act which he believed would help alleviate some of the issues during this financial fallout. In October of 2008 Congress enacted the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, it is known to US citizens as the bailout of our financial system (Public Law 110–343, 2008). The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is an act “to provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers” (Public Law 110–343, 2008). This was the governments’ way to help the banks and the American people recover and establish stability during these hard times (Public Law 110–343, 2008).