2.08 Moral Hazard Definition

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If there was ever a word to describe the events that led up to the financial crisis of ’08, “Moral Hazard” would fit the bill perfectly. Moral hazard happens in financial terms when the success of a particular transaction is very heavily dependent on the performance of a particular party’s obligations, but where a particular party has no interest or incentive to carry out that obligation diligently. Let’s for instance take the example of a loan worth $720K, which was given to a strawberry picker earning around$14K/year to acquire a certain piece of property in the early 2000’s . In this case moral hazard was there and existed because the loan company intended to sell the loan forward to the credit rating agencies due to the inability of the