The financial system can also be defined as the collection of markets, institutions, laws, regulations, and techniques through which financial instruments (bonds, stocks, and other securities) are traded, interest rates are determined, and financial services are produced and delivered around the world.

• Financial market is a market in which financial assets (securities) such as stocks and bonds can be purchased or sold • Financial markets are critical for producing an efficient allocation of capital, which contributes to higher production and efficiency for the overall economy, as well as economic security for the citizenry as a whole • Financial markets also improve the lot of individual participants by providing investment returns to lender-savers and profit and/or use opportunities to borrower-spenders.

In the 1990s, financial markets in the United States boomed. The Dow Jones Industrial Index—a widely quoted index of the values of 30 large corporations (see Chapter 8 )—rose from a level of 2,800 in January 1990 to more than 11,000 by the end of the decade; this compares to a move from 100 at its inception in 1906 to 2,800 eighty-four years later. In the early 2000s, as a result of an economic downturn in the United States and elsewhere, this index fell back below 10,000. The index rose to over 14,000 in July 2007, but (because of an increasing mortgage market credit crunch, particularly the subprime mortgage market) fell back to below 13,000 within a month of hitting the all-time high. By 2008, problems in the subprime mortgage market escalated to a full blown financial crisis and the worst recession in the United States since the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Arerage (DJIA) fell to 6,547 in March 2009 before recovering, along with the economy, to over 11,000 in April 2010.