Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British. Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army. Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii. It was there, at the University of Hawaii, where Barack's parents met. His mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America. Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983. Remembering the values of empathy and service that his mother taught him, Barack put law school and corporate life on hold after college and moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment. The group had some success, but Barack had come to realize that in order to truly improve the lives of people in that community and other communities, it would take not just a change at the local level, but a change in our laws and in our politics. He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate. It has been the rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama's life - growing up in different places with people who had differing ideas - that have animated his political journey. Amid the partisanship and bickering of today's public debate, he still believes in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose - a politics that puts solving the challenges of everyday Americans ahead of partisan calculation and political gain. In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases. In the U.S. Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of a globalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no longer settles for the lowest common denominator. His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent. He has also been the lead voice in championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-style corruption in Congress. As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world. And knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America's addiction to oil, he's working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars. Whether it's the poverty exposed by Katrina, the genocide in Darfur, or the role of faith in our politics, Barack Obama continues to speak out on the issues that will define America in the 21st century. But above all his accomplishments and experiences, he is most proud and grateful for his family. His wife, Michelle, and his two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, live on Chicago's South Side.(from http://www.barackobama.com)
Barack Obama was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. They didn't have much money, but they taught him values from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. He took out loans to put himself through school. After college, he worked for Christian churches in Chicago, helping communities devastated when steel plants closed. Obama turned down lucrative job offers after law school to return to Chicago, leading a successful voter registration drive. He joined a small law firm, taught constitutional law and, guided by his Christian faith, stayed active in his community. Obama and his wife Michelle are proud parents of two daughters, Sasha and Malia.
EARLY YEARS
THE COLLEGE YEARS
POLITICAL CAREER
Lehman Brothers, world's topmost investment bank that dates back to 1850 (even prior to the civil war) now dissapeared. It survived two World War , the Great Depression of 1929 and all other financial problems that arises in its 158 year old history, but this ongoing financial crisis break its beakbone. On September 15,2008, it filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. Before talking furthur about its collapse , let us take a look on Lehman's 158 year old history. And then America's fourth largest Investment BAnk filed the biggest bankruptcy petition known to mankind. A bank who never reported any quaterly loss even once in its 158 year old history collapsed.The bankruptcy was of the size of $639 billion. The main reason of this collapse is the Sub-prime mortgage crisis. Lehman Brothers knuckle down to subprime crisis. A huge loss of $60 billion forced Lehman to file for bankruptcy. According to many people this was the outcome of excessive greed and pride of Lehman's CEO Richard Fuld. Seeing this condition of Lehman Brothers other banks start refusing to do any business with Lehman. They didnot feel comfortable with Lehman's complex and opaque way of trading. Due to rise in ROI ( rate of interest) in America, borrowers were unable to repay loans, it worsened the financial condition of Lehman Brother. Due to this Lehman Brother faced a huge loss which forced them to shut down all its business. Barclay and Bank of America tried to take over Lehamn Brothers. Now the main question arisis why Barclay want to buy Lehman when other banks are running away from Lehman. According to barclay they actually want to buy the firm at cheap price and re-run it when the favourable conditions will come. Because Barclay knows that the main cause was the greed of Lehman's CEO and only subprime is not responsible for its fall. According to Wall Street it will make the recession in America more worse.
Sub-prime loans ( Housing loans or junk loans) are given to those people whose income is very less or we can say they fall in unstable income group who are not eligible for the loans issued by banks. Sub-prime loans are for those needy people. Although subprime loans are very risky but it is very profitable. Bank directly can’t provide loans for people who falls in low credit group. Those people can’t fulfill the bank’s essential requirements. So banks give loans to the big Institutions at certain rate of interest. Those Institutions divide that big amount of loan in smaller amount and give them out to low credit people in the form of home loans at much higher rate of interest than the rate at which they borrowed money from the bank. This higher rate of interest is knows as Sub-Prime rate and this home Loan market is referred as Sub-prime home loan market. A simple man now get a loan, although at higher ROI but its better than no loan. US government kept the rate of interest low for a long time to encourage low credit population for the sub-prime loans. Due to low interest rates the subprime loan EMI remain low for long time. Attracting towards the low EMI , people kept on taking big loans to fulfill their dreams. Due to so much interest in making houses , real estate prices goes high. Stock market zoomed. Everything was hoping a great future. But suddenly bolt from the blue comes. Its impossible to keep interest rate low for a long time. Government start increasing the ROI (rate of interest) gradually . But its hit the low credit group seviourly. As the ROI increased Institutions also kept on increasing ROI on subprime loans which means EMI ( Equated monthly installments) start increasing. And thus , more and more borrower start defaulting. Also real estate prices starts going down. When the US Economy begans to slow down ,the crisis began with the bursting of the US housing bubble :- All these factors cause and many other.Due to all these , people unable to pay their EMI. Institutions securitise the loans , thus the risk was at the investors who invest in their stocks. On the other hand , institutions keep on taking loans from banks as they were able to repay the loans before the time.Institutions spend the loans in securities too so that they will get return much earlier. As people getting defaulting , Institutions were unable to repay the loan amount to banks and start selling the securities. Investors move away from those securities , which furthur dragged the stock market. Now to repay the loans and to fix their losses, investors start taking out their money from other markets especially Indian , Japan and other asian markets where they were performing well. This Sensex ( Indian stock market) starts tumbling as selling of FII’s were much more than buying so sensex fall.This was actually sub prime crisis which mainly hit US,UK and many part of Europe.
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