The Great Recession of 2007-2008 did indeed shake many of the central tenants of the conservative consensus as this consensus was essentially built on what many believed to be the free-market system which was assumed to be the most efficient type of market system out all of the market systems. The Great Recession of 2007-2008, however, proved that this assumption was wrong and while Barack Obama campaigned that he was going to increase economic reforms or in layman terms, one could say, government intervention, he and his administration ending up reviving asset price appreciation, which was the very thing that caused the economic crisis or The Great Recession of 2007-2008 in the first place, instead of increasing government intervention in the government to ensure something like this wouldn’t happen in the foreseeable future.
In the chapter ”The Great Recession” of the book “ The Ages Of Capitalism” by Jonathan Levy, he states that the administration of Barack Abama was focused on financial stabilization and not on increasing government intervention, treasury secretary Hank Paulson who was the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Goldman Sachs, was opposed to the process of nationalization of banks, instead of nationalizing banks, he proposed that they should increase the amount of investment in banks through injections of capital. The administration, hence, helped banks and other institutions to get back on the track of profitability but they didn’t , however, help or shield, the common American individual from unemployment. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that the response of Obama’s administration to the economic recession marked a continuation of conservative consensus and not a departure. Furthermore, the U.S Treasury and the Federal Reserve, both during the economic crisis, were given a lot of authority over economic policy-making, Ben Bernanke, who was chairman of Federal Reserve System, along with Hank Paulson and Timonthy Geithner, were the people who flushed in huge sums of money in the financial markets to prevent further exacerbation. Both of these institutions under these leaders, thus were able to make decisions relatively quickly with little to no oversight from the congress.
In conclusion, it is fair to say that the response of Barack Obama’s administration to the 2007-2008 economic crisis was representative of the continuation of conservative consensus. Although it did succeed in ensuring the survival of a free market system, it failed to address many structural problems, and it failed to help people who suffered from unemployment and homelessness.
Will Wright 
I like how you focus on the aspect of free market and asset valuing / trading as a reason to both why it was what caused the Great Recession but also how it was ‘fixed’. Along with that, the way in which you give context before mentioning and supporting each of your reasons makes it stronger and easier to understand. Additionally, I never really thought about the peoples job market, unemployment, or housing effects in relation to the Great Recession but you did a good job at getting those finer less talked about details.
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