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The global financial crisis has prompted comparisons with The Great Depression which paralysed America in the 1920s and 30s.

In the second episode of When The World Went Bust, a special look at the causes and consequences of the current global economic downturn, Al Jazeera's Samah El-Shahat  hears from top financial experts and learns how the aftershocks of America's sub-prime crisis and credit crunch are being felt worldwide.

Nowhere more keenly than in Iceland - a country which was bankrupted by too much borrowing which led to the collapse of its financial system - and in California where thousands of home owners are facing foreclosure.

Episode 1



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Recent years have been conspicuous by their wealth. The world's richest people increasingly came from unexpected places such as India, Russia and Mexico.

China's economy grew at breakneck speed, churning out cheap products and rich tycoons while Wall Street traders banked billion dollar bonuses and property speculation made millionaires of ordinary people overnight.

However after a period of unprecedented and seemingly unending boom, a financial firestorm, sparked by a sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US, has engulfed many parts of the world.

In a special two-part series Al Jazeera traces the roots of the financial crisis that caught many politicians, business leaders and commentators unawares and examines how far and deep the economic turmoil may be.

In the first programme Samah el-Shahat goes to the US and the UK to find how the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2007 has left, and will leave, many people homeless and hears how some critics belive members of the financial sector are to blame and should be punished.