safari bus crash 2008

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Members of Bonham Carter family killed in minibus crash

Four Britons have died in a minibus crash while on a safari adventure in South Africa, the Foreign Office said last night. The victims were understood to be relations of the Hollywood actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Three of the dead were named as 14-year-old Eton pupil Marcus Egerton-Warburton, his grandmother Brenda Bonham Carter, 74, and step-grandfather Francis Kirkwood, 75. Reports suggested that their vehicle had overturned when the driver lost control after a blowout about six hours drive from Johannesburg in a remote area of bush on Wednesday.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are still seeking clarification about the accident from the South African authorities."

Marcus's mother, Fiona Bonham Carter, and his brother Piers were also injured in the crash. Friends of the dead schoolboy have set up an online memorial on the social network site Facebook. One stated: "Can't put into words how much I will miss you. You are an amazing person you will never be forgotten. R.I.P marci xxx."

Another friend left the message: "I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. One of the nicest guys in Eton. Will always miss you Markie boy. Love you forever."

Marcus was a member of the Bembridge sailing club on the Isle of Wright. The club announced the deaths on its website. It added that Charlie - believed to be referring to the boy's father - flew out to South Africa on Thursday.

The victims are believed to be part of the extended family that also includes Helen Bonham Carter. Her UK agents could not be contacted for comment last night.

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Report: Relatives of Helena Bonham Carter Killed in Safari Bus Crash

Actress Helena Bonham Carter is mourning the loss of four relatives who were killed in a bus crash while on safari in South Africa, People magazine reported Saturday.

The victims of the tragedy included the 14-year-old son of the actress’ cousin, Fiona Bonham Carter, the boy’s maternal grandmother, Brenda Bonham Carter, and his stepfather and aunt, People reported.

Fiona Bonham Carter, 51, suffered a broken collar-bone and her other son reportedly suffered whiplash.

The accident took place when the vehicle lost control and overturned on a road near the Welgevonden game reserve, People said.

A rep for Bonham Carter, who has starred in such films as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and "Sweeney Todd,” had no comment on the situation Sunday. Bonham Carter and her husband, director Tim Burton, welcomed their second child Nell in December.

Click here for the full report from People Magazine.

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Grief of Bonham Carter dynasty over 'appalling tragedy' that claimed four of Helena's family

Devastated: Helena Bonham Carter

Friends of Oscar-winning actress Helena Bonham Carter have called the safari crash which killed four members of her family an ‘appalling tragedy’.

The horrific accident happened when the family’s minibus veered out of control following a tyre blow-out, rolling over several times in a remote area of the African bush.

Five of the seven family members on board were thrown out of the minibus, which was travelling from Botswana to the Madikwe Game Reserve.

Among the dead were 14-year-old Eton schoolboy Marcus Egerton-Warburton, son of Helena’s cousin, Fiona Bonham Carter, 51.

Marcus’s grandmother Brenda Bonham Carter, 74, his step-grandfather Francis Kirkwood, and his aunt Kay Bonham Carter, 55, also died.

His brother Piers, 16, was recovering in Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg, yesterday with whiplash injuries and a fractured left hip.

Fiona and her brother, Graham Bonham Carter, 48, whose wife Kay died, were released after treatment.

It is the second time Graham has narrowly escaped death.In 1991 he survived an IRA litter bin bomb blast which exploded just yards from where he was stranding  in London's Victoria Station.

Tragic: Marcus Egerton-Warburton was, at 14, the youngest to die in the smash. Friends have left tributes on his Facebook page

The couple married only a year ago. Kay was due to celebrate her 55th birthday on September 1.

Eton schoolboy Marcus was a keen sailor who belonged to Bembridge Sailing Club on the Isle of Wight.

His father Charlie, head of UK and Ireland private banking at Credit Suisse, is a prominent member of the club and was previously club captain.

Secretary Mike Samuelson said the club was devastated by the news. 'He was a delightful boy,' he said.

'It's tragic. Marcus had spent two to three weeks here with his father before he went on holiday,' he said. 'He was a keen sailor.'

Last night Piers’s father Charles Egerton-Warburton, who flew from Britain to be at his son’s bedside, said Piers ‘was doing fine’ but declined to comment further.

Tragedy: The bus the family were travelling in flipped over when a tyre burst (file

Tow truck company owner Rudolf Du Plessis, one of the first people on the scene, said it was ‘one of the worst accidents he’d ever seen’.

A close family friend with Mr Egerton-Warburton at the hospital, said: ‘Marcus was a very talented boy who would have succeeded at almost everything he did.’

Fiona and her estranged husband Mr Egerton-Warburton, were said to be ‘in extreme shock’ last night.

It is understood that Fiona’s step-father Mr Kirkwood, 75, was driving the minibus when the blow-out happened and had struggled to regain control of the vehicle.

Grief: Graham Bonham Carter survived but his wife, Kay Boardman, died

Last night Marcus' friends paid tribute to him on social networking site Facebook.

George Wilders wrote: 'RIP Marcus....xx'. George Whitaker said that he 'is trying and failing to recover will miss u marcie R.I.P'.

Henri Ashe-Taylor wrote that he was 'depressed about marcus. Just cant get over it.' And friend Freddie Wheeler wrote: 'we will always love you'.

Another grieving friend left the message: 'I can't believe. I just can't believe it. One of the nicest guys in Eton. Will always miss you Markie boy. Love you forever.'

At the former south London home of Graham’s mother Fiona a family friend spoke of her grief.

Rome Godwin said she had known Brenda and Francis for 25 years. She said: 'They were lovely, enjoyable people.

‘I am in complete shock. They have moved away now but spend a lot of time in South Africa.’

The Foreign Office said that four people had been killed in a car crash in South Africa.

A spokesman said last night: 'I can confirm that four British nationals have died in a road traffic accident in South Africa on August 20.'

She was unable to confirm any further details.

Helena Bonham-Carter, now 42, shot to fame as a teenager for her portrayal of Lucy Honeychurch in the Merchant Ivory production of  A Room with a View in 1985.

The great grand-daughter of British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, she is best-known for her Oscar-nominated role as Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove and BAFTA-nominated performance in Howard's End.

Keen to branch out from period dramas, she has starred to critical acclaim in Fight Club, Planet of the Apes and most recently the Harry Potter films.

The actress lives with her husband, director Tim Burton in North London, and they have two children, Billy Ray, four, and Nell, eight months.

Ms Bonham Carter’s UK agent could not be contacted yesterday.

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Agony of Helena Bonham Carter cousin as he relives safari crash that killed his family

By Nick Fagge for the Daily Mail Updated: 17:30 EDT, 9 November 2010

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Family tragedy: Actress Helena Bonham Carter, whose cousin gave evidence at yesterday's hearing

The cousin of actress Helena Bonham Carter has told how four relatives were killed during a safari adventure after their minibus careered off the road.

Graham Bonham Carter found the bodies of his wife Kay, mother Brenda and nephew Marcus Egerton-Warburton strewn across the savannah when he came round, covered in blood, a court heard yesterday.

His stepfather Francis Kirkwood, 74, was also killed when the VW Kombi somersaulted off the road.

They were travelling from Botswana to the Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa, in August 2008.

Mr Bonham Carter said: ‘When I got out of the vehicle I knew I would have to cope with this now and my life would change forever.’

His nephew, Piers Egerton-Warburton, now 18, and the boy’s mother, Fiona Bonham Carter, were also thrown from the vehicle, but both survived despite suffering broken bones and neck injuries.

Animal lover: Marcus Egerton-Warburton, 14, was killed in the August 2008 minibus crash

The court heard that Mr Bonham Carter was sitting in the front seat with Mr Kirkwood, who was driving when tragedy struck.

But the 74-year-old could not keep control of the minibus after it struck broken glass at 75mph, causing a back tyre to explode.

Mr Bonham Carter, a 50-year-old financier, said he had waited for the police to arrive and calmly collected his wife’s possessions.

‘I didn’t scream, I didn’t shout, I didn’t collapse, I didn’t cry – I gathered myself together,’ he said.

‘I remember saying to the police, “I don’t want to see my wife or mother again, but could you please take off their jewellery?”.

‘I remember collecting their handbags, which was a funny sort of thing. I kept them with me all the way to the police station. I was the last person to leave the scene, there was a little bit of contemplation just sitting there, surrounded by carnage.’

Mr Bonham Carter, who was brought up in Zimbabwe, told how he had spent a year ‘meticulously planning' the doomed family holiday.

‘I felt I was in control of everyone’s safety, I planned it meticulously and in 60 seconds it just all went wrong.’

Mr Bonham Carter, from Wandsworth in South-West London, broke down in tears at the inquest as he paid tribute to his beloved wife, 54, who had worked as a PA for King Hussein of Jordan and his son King Abdullah.

He told Westminster Coroner’s Court: ‘There are only a handful of people that come into your world and touch your lives and Kay was one of them.

‘Her radiant charm, calm and warm smile would light up this room, and she would want everyone in the room to know that in fact all is well. She is desperately missed but not forgotten.’

The Madikwe Game Reserve where the group were on a dream trip

And Piers Egerton-Warburton honoured his ‘clever and funny’ 14-year-old brother, Eton schoolboy Marcus, who loved animals.

In a statement read out in court he said: ‘Every day of his life he lived as if it was his last.

‘It somewhat feels fitting the last days of his short life were spent watching them (the animals) in all their glory.’

Recording verdicts of accidental death in both cases, coroner Dr Paul Knapman described the accident as an ‘appalling tragedy’.

Helena Bonham-Carter, 44, is known for her Oscar-nominated role as Kate Croy in The Wings Of The Dove and BAFTA-nominated performance in Howard’s End. She is the great grand-daughter of prime minister Herbert Asquith.

Share or comment on this article: Helena Bonham Carter's relatives killed on African safari holiday

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Four Britons killed in bus crash on African safari

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Four Britons have died in a minibus crash while on a safari holiday in South Africa, the Foreign Office said last night.

The victims – understood to be relations of the actress Helena Bonham Carter – were killed when the minibus lost control and overturned on Wednesday.

Three of the dead were named by sources as a 14-year-old Eton schoolboy, Marcus Egerton-Warburton, his grandmother Brenda Bonham Carter, 74, and his step-grandfather Francis Kirkwood, 75.

Marcus's mother, Fiona Bonham Carter, is believed to have sustained a broken collar bone while his brother Piers suffered whiplash. They were transported to Johannesburg hospital for treatment after the crash.

Reports suggest that the vehicle turned over after the driver struggled to keep control when a tyre blew out.

Marcus was a keen member of the Bembridge Sailing Club on the Isle of Wright. The club announced the boy's death on its website on Thursday.

It stated: "It is with the very greatest sadness that I have to inform you that Marcus Egerton-Warburton tragically died in a road accident in South Africa at around 4pm on Wednesday 20 August.

"They were in a minibus travelling between game reserves at the time of the accident."

It added that Charlie – believed to be referring to the boy's father – flew out to South Africa yesterday.

Friends of the dead schoolboy have set up an online memorial on the social network site Facebook. A grieving friend left the message: "I can't believe. I just can't believe it. One of the nicest guys in Eton. Will always miss you Markie boy. Love you forever." Another stated: "Can't put into words how much I will miss you... R.I.P. marci xxx."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm the deaths of four British nationals in a road traffic accident on 20 August."

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Safari crashes immediately on mac

How do I fix safari from crashing immediately on my Mac

iMac 27″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Sep 29, 2021 5:58 AM

Posted on Sep 29, 2021 7:27 AM

imagoodshot wrote:

Safari 15 crashes in Big Sur— a known issue

Quit Safari.app Command Q

From the Finder>Go?Go to Folder, copy and paste:

~/Library/Containers/Safari/Data/Library/Safari/

delete the following or move to the desktop to delete later

safaritabs.db

safaritabs.db-shm

safaritabs.db-wal

Re-launch Safari and test.

Similar questions

• my safari keeps crashing on my mac my safari keeps crashing on my mac 308 1
• my safari keeps crashing on my macbook pro with big sur my safari keeps crashing on my macbook pro with big sur. how do i fix it? 462 4
• Safari crashes after Mojave update How to have Safari open and not crash? 269 1

Loading page content

Page content loaded

Sep 29, 2021 7:27 AM in response to imagoodshot

Sep 29, 2021 7:23 AM in response to imagoodshot

Is this occurring on the newest Safari 15.0 ??

Does the same issue occur if booting into Safe Mode - Shift - immediately at restart. It will do a repair disc, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extension and fonts so loads slowly - normal.

Then - test the Safari issue Crashing or not ??

Sep 29, 2021 8:39 PM in response to leroydouglas

You are really my saver. I have had this issue for a week. Doing what you posted save my sanity, too; just like "imagoodshot" said; I was concerned that I might have to spend money to fix this Safari problem.

Much Appreciate your GREAT help.

Oct 20, 2021 10:51 PM in response to zeboo

The solution that worked for me was to go to this location using Finder:

Go to Folder: copy and paste:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Saved Application State

Then delete the file called windows.plist .

Safari then opened for me and worked normally. The joys of computers. 😁

Nov 14, 2021 1:12 PM in response to zeboo

Same here and I can not get it to load it just continuously finder wheel spins and it just hangs up doing nothing, thus whyI wonder if it can be reinstalled! I am not running Sur as my computer will not update to it - guess time to get a new one , it has been a good long run of 8+ years........

Nov 22, 2021 6:47 PM in response to leroydouglas

OK, I applied the Solution, and when I reopened Safari, I saw a couple dozen empty windows!

So I then shut it down, and reloaded the safaritabs.db file, since it had about 240 mbs, which I figured were all the pages/tabs I had previously open. and of the other two files, one was empty, and the other only had 33kbs, which is what the new one also has, so I assumed it contained nothing relevant.

Well, when I reopened Safari, I now had two dozen, empty "Start pages", and when I looked in the folder I had put back in the large file, it was now EMPTY!

The very first time I opened Safari, when updating to Big Sur, I also lost about 40 or 50 previously opened tabs and windows, which was a royal pain, that I was never able to reconfigure, and now, I've just lost about the same number of ones I had open before applying this "fix". Any ideas?

Plus, Safari is still slowing, getting spinning balls, typing slow, dock is jittery when I put my mouse over it, and Windowserver is up to nearly 5 GBs of RAM & 85% of CPU, and that's with only three open windows, aside from the 20 blank ones! Just now I've lost all my previously opened ones, in other words it's now acting worse than before I used the "solution"....

Dec 26, 2021 10:00 AM in response to Saxman

Now, thanks to the Safari 15.2 "update" Safari now crashes upon opening! Won't even open, tried opening while holding the Shift key, as suggested on another thread, but all that did was empty any remaining open windows or tabs I still had, and still crashes upon opening. This is a big mess....

Dec 26, 2021 10:07 AM in response to leroydouglas

After following your instructions, Safari opened, for maybe one minute, then immediately crashed, yet again:

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)

Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Illegal instruction: 4

Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0x4

Terminating Process: exc handler [95772]

Crashing on exception: The window has been marked as needing another Update Constraints in Window pass, but it has already had more Update Constraints in Window passes than there are views in the window.

<NSWindow: 0x7ff77ce437c0> 0x129d (4765) { {100, 100}, {100, 128}} en

Sep 29, 2021 12:50 PM in response to leroydouglas

You are an angel! Thank-you for saving my sanity as well as a saving me a crap ton of money to fix my computer. I can’t believe it was that simple.

Oct 10, 2021 12:10 PM in response to Mac2021Apple

It worked for me too, thank you very much. I had been running Firefox for two weeks after trying everything I could.

Oct 16, 2021 12:57 AM in response to leroydouglas

Did not work for me, Safari still stalls and has to be forcibly closed

Jan 3, 2022 12:06 PM in response to David Blaymires

Thank you David, this is the only solution that worked for me. Nothing else was able to stop Safari from crashing within a minute of opening it!

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What Was the 2008 Great Recession?

Understanding the great recession, origins and consequences, response to the great recession.

• The Great Recession FAQs

The Bottom Line

• International Markets

2008 Recession: What It Was and What Caused It

Amanda Bellucco-Chatham is an editor, writer, and fact-checker with years of experience researching personal finance topics. Specialties include general financial planning, career development, lending, retirement, tax preparation, and credit.

Investopedia / NoNo Flores

The Great Recession was the sharp decline in economic activity that started in 2007 and lasted several years, spilling into global economies. It is considered the most significant downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The term "Great Recession" applies to both the U.S. recession, officially lasting from December 2007 to June 2009, and the ensuing global recession in 2009.

The economic slump began when the U.S. housing market went from boom to bust, and large amounts of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and derivatives plummeted in value.

Key Takeaways

• The Great Recession refers to the economic downturn from 2007 to 2009 after the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble and the global financial crisis.
• The Great Recession was the most severe economic recession in the United States since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• In response to the Great Recession, unprecedented fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policy was unleashed by federal authorities, which some, but not all, credit with the subsequent recovery.

The term "Great Recession" is a play on the term "Great Depression" of the 1930s, when gross domestic product (GDP) declined more than 10% and unemployment hit 25%.

While no explicit criteria exist to differentiate a depression from a severe recession, there is a near consensus among economists that the downturn of 2007-2009 was not a depression. During the Great Recession, U.S. GDP declined by 0.3% in 2008 and 2.8% in 2009, while unemployment briefly reached 10%.

Causes of the Great Recession

According to a 2011 report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the Great Recession was avoidable. The appointees, which included six Democrats and four Republicans, cited several key contributing factors they determined led to the downturn.

First, the report identified failure on the part of the government to regulate the financial industry. This failure to regulate included the Fed’s inability to stop banks from giving mortgages to people who subsequently proved to be a bad credit risk.

Next, too many financial firms took on too much risk. The shadow banking system , which included investment firms, grew to rival the depository banking system but was not under the same scrutiny or regulation. When the shadow banking system failed, the collapse impacted the flow of credit to consumers and businesses.

Other causes the report identified included excessive borrowing by consumers and corporations, along with lawmakers who did not fully understand the collapsing financial system. This created asset bubbles, especially in the housing market as mortgages were extended at low interest rates to unqualified borrowers who subsequently could not repay them. The ensuing selloff caused housing prices to fall and left many other homeowners underwater. This, in turn, severely impacted the market for the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) banks and other institutional investors held, and demand for which allowed lenders to give mortgages to risky borrowers.

The 2001 Dotcom bubble implosion followed by the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001, hammered the U.S. economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve responded by cutting interest rates to the lowest levels since Bretton Woods to stimulate the economy. The Fed held interest rates low through mid-2004.

Combined with federal policy to encourage home ownership, low interest rates helped spark a boom in real estate and financial markets and a dramatic expansion of the volume of total mortgage debt . Financial innovations such as new types of subprime and adjustable mortgages allowed borrowers, many of whom otherwise might not have qualified, to obtain home loans on generous terms based on the expectation that interest rates would remain low and home prices would continue to rise.

However, from 2004 through 2006, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to control inflation. As interest rates rose, the flow of new credit through traditional banking channels into real estate slowed. More seriously, rates on existing adjustable mortgages and exotic loans began to reset at much higher rates than many borrowers expected (or were led to expect by lenders). As monthly mortgage payments rose beyond borrowers' ability to pay (and they could not simply refinance as prices had stopped steadily rising), many borrowers started to sell. The increase in supply burst what was later widely recognized to be a housing bubble .

During the U.S. housing boom, financial institutions sold mortgage-backed securities and complex derivative products at unprecedented levels. When the real estate market collapsed in 2007, these securities declined precipitously in value. The credit markets that had financed the housing bubble quickly followed housing prices into a downturn as a credit crisis began unfolding in 2007. The solvency of over-leveraged banks and financial institutions hit a breaking point with the collapse of Bear Stearns in March 2008.

Things came to a head later that year with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers , the country’s fourth-largest investment bank, in September 2008. The contagion quickly spread to other economies around the world, most notably in Europe. As a result of the Great Recession, the United States alone lost more than 8.7 million jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, doubling the unemployment rate. Further, U.S. households lost roughly $19 trillion in net worth as the stock market plunged, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Great Recession's official end date was June 2009.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act gave the government control of failing financial institutions and the ability to establish consumer protections against predatory lending.

The aggressive monetary policies the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank took, along with other central banks around the world, was widely credited with preventing even greater damage to the global economy. However, some also criticized the moves, claiming they made the recession last longer and that they laid the groundwork for later recessions.

Monetary and Fiscal Policy

For example, the Fed lowered a key interest rate to nearly zero to promote liquidity and, in an unprecedented move, provided banks with a staggering $7.7 trillion of emergency loans in a policy known as quantitative easing (QE).

Along with the inundation of liquidity, the U.S. Federal government embarked on a massive program to stimulate the economy in the form of $787 billion in spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act . These monetary and fiscal policies reduced immediate losses to major financial institutions and large corporations.

The Dodd-Frank Act

Not only did the government introduce stimulus packages, new financial regulation was also put into place. In the 1990s, the U.S. repealed the Glass-Steagall Act , a depression-era regulation that separated investment from retail banking to reduce systemic risk. Some economists say this move helped cause the crisis. The repeal allowed some large U.S. banks to merge and form larger institutions, many of which later failed and had to be bailed out.

In response, in 2010, U.S. Congress passed and then-President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act, which gave the government expanded power to regulate the financial sector, including greater control over financial institutions that were deemed on the cusp of failing. It also created consumer protections against predatory lending.

However, critics of Dodd-Frank note that the financial sector players and institutions that actively drove and profited from predatory lending and related practices during the housing and financial bubbles were also deeply involved in both the drafting of the new law and with the agencies charged with its implementation. 

The U.S. Federal government spent $787 billion to stimulate the economy during the Great Recession under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Recovery From the Great Recession

Following these policies, the economy gradually recovered. Real GDP bottomed out in the second quarter of 2009 and regained its pre-recession peak in the second quarter of 2011, three and a half years after the initial onset of the official recession. Financial markets recovered as the flood of liquidity washed over Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which had lost over half its value from its August 2007 peak, began to recover in March 2009 and, four years later, in March 2013, broke its 2007 high.

For workers and households, the picture was less rosy. Unemployment was at 5% at the end of 2007, reached a high of 10% in October 2009, and did not recover to 5% until 2015, nearly eight years after the beginning of the recession. Real median household income did not recover to pre-recession levels until 2016.

Critics of the policy response and how it shaped the recovery argue that the tidal wave of liquidity and deficit spending propped up politically connected financial institutions and big business at the expense of ordinary people. It also may have delayed recovery by tying up economic resources in industries and activities that deserved to fail, when those assets and resources could have been used by other businesses to expand and create jobs.

How Long Did the Great Recession Last?

According to official Federal Reserve data, the Great Recession lasted eighteen months, from December 2007 through June 2009.

Have There Been Recessions Since the Great Recession?

Not officially. While the economy did suffer and markets fell following the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, stimulus efforts were effective in preventing a full-blown recession in the U.S. Some economists, however, fear that a recession may still be on the horizon as of late 2022.

How Much Did the Stock Market Crash During the Great Recession?

On October 9, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its pre-recession high of 14,164.53. By March 5, 2009, the index had fallen more than 50% to 6,594.44.

On September 29, 2008. The Dow Jones fell nearly 778 points in one day. It was the largest point drop in history until the market crashed in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Great Recession lasted from roughly 2007 to 2009 in the U.S., although the contagion spread around the world, affecting some economies longer. The root cause was excessive mortgage lending to borrowers who normally would not qualify for a home loan, which greatly increased risk to the lender. Lenders were willing to take this risk as they could simply package the loans into an instrument they sold, passing the risk on to investors. Low interest rates and poor regulatory oversight following the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act compounded the problem, as credit was cheap and lending institutions had been freed from regulations that would have hampered their ability to mix commercial and investment banking, which the Act had separated.

As the economy imploded and financial institutions failed, the U.S. government launched a massive bailout program, which included assistance for consumers and the many unemployed people via the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Most credit the bailouts and the ARRA with providing much needed relief to the public and with saving the financial industry (along with other industries) from total failure, but some assert the money used to bail out insolvent institutions could have been directed to more productive enterprises rather than using it to save failed ones.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. " Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ."

GovInfo.gov. " FINANCIAL CRISIS ."

International Monetary Fund. " Shadow Banks: Out of the Eyes of Regulators "

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. " Federal Funds Effective Rate (FEDFUNDS) ."

U.S. Congress. “ H.R.4173 — Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act .” 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. " Quantitative Easing: How Well Does This Tool Work? "

NPR. " Congress Approves $787 Billion Stimulus Plan ."

Yahoo! Finance. " DJIA ."

Federal Reserve. " The Great Recession and Its Aftermath ."

Reuters. " Economic outlook has 'darkened', business and government leaders warn in Davos ."

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Charging elephant kills an American woman on 'bucket list trip' in Zambia

An American woman who was on what she had called her "last big trip" was killed when a charging elephant flipped over the car she was traveling in at a national park in Zambia .

The “aggressive” creature buffeted the vehicle carrying six tourists and a guide, tour operator Wilderness said in a statement Tuesday. It said the 79-year-old victim died after Saturday's incident on a game drive at the Kafue National Park in western Zambia.

The company did not name the victim but Rona Wells, her daughter, identified her as Gail Mattson in a post on Facebook. She said her mother died in a “tragic accident while on her dream adventure.”

A video circulating on social media apparently showing the incident shows a large elephant running toward a car, which slows down as the animal approaches its left side. The elephant then flips the vehicle over and the passengers can be heard gasping as the car rolls over.

NBC News does not know the condition or identity of the person who filmed the video.

Photos shared online of the car, which is emblazoned with the logo of the tour operator, show it tipped onto its side after the incident, with a deep dent in two of its side doors.

Wilderness, which describes itself as a “leading conservation and hospitality company” operating in eight African countries, including Zambia, did not respond to NBC News when asked to confirm the authenticity of the video and the photos.

But the tour operator’s CEO, Keith Vincent, said in the statement that the company’s “guides are all extremely well trained and experienced.”

"Sadly in this instance the terrain and vegetation was such that the guide’s route became blocked and he could not move the vehicle out of harm’s way quickly enough,” he added.

Another woman was also injured in the incident and taken to a medical facility in South Africa, the Wilderness statement said, adding that four others were treated for minor injuries.

“It’s extremely rare to see an elephant that irate,” Marlon du Toit, a wildlife photographer and safari guide, told the “TODAY” show Thursday. “Across Africa, there are thousands and thousands of guests on safari on a daily basis with no negative consequences.”

The exact cause of Mattson’s death was unclear, but the company said her body would be repatriated to her family in the United States with the support of local Zambian authorities and the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Lusaka.

“This is a tragic event and we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the guest who died,” the statement added.

NBC News has reached out to Mattson's family for further comment.

Kafue National Park is Zambia’s largest and oldest national park, according to its website, and spans an area of more than 8,000 square miles. Vast regions of the park remain unexplored and the website says it is home to a variety of untamed wildlife.

A 'bucket list trip'

Mattson spent her winters in Sun City West, Arizona, playing bridge and cards, but during the rest of the year, she "travels all over the world," her friend Brenda Biggs told NBC News. Biggs and her husband, John Longabauth, became friends with Mattson when they moved to the area 6 ½ years ago.

Longabauth said Mattson spoke to the couple about her upcoming safari trip about two weeks ago, and called it "one of her bucket list trips." He said she was very excited for the adventure.

Before she left, she gave the couple concert tickets for a show that would happen while she was traveling, telling them to enjoy the concert and "I'll see you when I get back," Longabauth recalled of the conversation.

Biggs said Mattson, who was almost 80 years old, told her that the African safari was her "my last big trip." She said Mattson was "super excited because it was like the culmination of all the trips that she had gone on."

An avid traveler, Mattson took to trips to Europe and Asia, Longabauth recalled, noting that she might have been to South America, too.

Biggs called her friend "flamboyant," "friendly" and "fabulous" and said she loved bright colors. Mattson had taken over Biggs’ job as the event planner for their 200-member bridge club, she said.

"Gail was one of the more up people you'd ever want to meet," Longabauth said. "She was always up. She was always optimistic. She was always seeing the good side of everybody."

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

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Man Hospitalized After a Giraffe Fell on His Vehicle During a Safari in South Africa

The 18-foot animal was killed in the accident, which also involved a bus full of tourists

An elderly Swiss man has been hospitalized after a car accident involving a wild giraffe at a national park in South Africa.

The injured Swiss man and his wife were traveling in a rental camper through Kruger National Park on Sunday when a tourist bus carrying 13 visitors through the park collided with a giraffe, causing the massive animal to fall onto the rental car.

The man’s wife suffered minor injuries from what the park called on Twitter a “massive crash,” but her husband was “seriously injured” and ended up being airlifted to a nearby hospital’s intensive care unit.

While the park tweeted on Sunday that “the Swiss driver was responding at the scene and his condition is stable,” MSN reported the same day that he was on life support. KNP did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The park said on Twitter Sunday that plans were being made to transfer the man to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, about 250 miles away from the park, as soon as possible.

Sadly the 18-foot-tall giraffe was killed in the accident, Isaac Phaahla, the park’s general manager of communications and marketing, said in a press release.

Two passengers from the tourist bus were treated for minor injuries, Phaahla said.

Guests to Kruger National Park are able to take guided tours but are also able to go on self-drive safaris, which is what the Swiss couple were doing.

The collision happened north of the Mopani Rest Camp in the park, and the bus was traveling south on its way to the Letaba Rest Camp. The Swiss couple was driving the opposite way.

In its conduct guidelines , the park says that it is an “offense” to drive off of unauthorized roads, drive over the speed limits, or to drive “in such a manner that it is a nuisance, disturbance, or an inconvenience to other persons.”

RELATED VIDEO: Cheetah Jumps on Safari Vehicle

It is currently unclear whether either vehicle involved in the crash was doing any of the above, but photos reveal skid marks behind the bus leading to some speculation it was speeding.

Phaahla told MSN, “we are aware of the length of skid marks left by the minibus taxi but it is not our job to speculate on the speed the taxi was driving at but to leave that to the police investigation.”

The South African Police Service has launched an investigation into the crash and what may have caused it. The SAPS did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Phaahla encouraged anyone planning a visit to the park to be extra careful of park rules and aware of the wildlife.

“We are approaching the festive season in a month’s time and encourage visitors to plan their trips between gates and camps so as to eliminate the need to hurry, please also exercise caution as the wildlife has no concept of traffic rules,” he said in the press release.

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8-year-old lone survivor of South Africa bus crash will be discharged from hospital

The wreckage off a bus lays in a ravine a day after it plunged off a bridge on the Mmamatlakala mountain pass between Mokopane and Marken, around 300km (190 miles) north of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, March 29, 2024. A bus carrying worshippers on a long-distance trip from Botswana to an Easter weekend church gathering in South Africa plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass Thursday and burst into flames as it hit the rocky ground below, killing at least 45 people, authorities said. The only survivor was an 8-year-old child who was receiving medical attention for serious injuries. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

A view of a bridge a day after a bus plunged into a ravine on the Mmamatlakala mountain pass between Mokopane and Marken, around 300km (190 miles) north of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, March 29, 2024. A bus carrying worshippers on a long-distance trip from Botswana to an Easter weekend church gathering in South Africa plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass Thursday and burst into flames as it hit the rocky ground below, killing at least 45 people, authorities said. The only survivor was an 8-year-old child who was receiving medical attention for serious injuries. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The 8-year-old lone survivor of a bus crash that killed at least 45 people in South Africa before Easter weekend will be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, health officials said.

Atlang Siako is expected to travel to her home in neighboring Botswana, from where the bus was traveling last Thursday on its way to an annual Easter pilgrimage that attracts hundreds of thousands of followers of the Zion Christian Church.

The bus careened off a bridge near Mokopane village in the northern province of Limpopo, fell more than 150 feet (50 meters) and caught fire as it hit the rocks below, killing the driver and all passengers except Siako.

Health officials are still working to identify the burnt remains of those who died in the accident. At least eight bodies have been identified, officials said, as they continue to perform tests to identify the others.

Limpopo provincial Health Minister Phophi Ramathuba told reporters on Wednesday that doctors were happy with Siako’s condition and that she could return home to Botswana.

“She is in a position where we can now release her to her home because at the same time the psychological impact of being away from home does have an impact on the total, complete healing,” Ramathuba said.

“We want her to heal completely, but she is fine. She is still in a lot of pain but we are satisfied with her condition,” she said.

Ramathuba confirmed that at least 35 bodies had been retrieved from the scene and officials were trying to identify them so they could be repatriated to Botswana.

The government of Botswana has announced it will hold national memorial services around the country for the victims.

“The decision to hold a nationwide memorial service was taken in recognition of the fact that the tragedy of losing 45 lives all at once in a single incident would have affected not only the families and relatives of the victims but the entire nation,” the office of Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi said in a statement.

“It is a national tragedy,” the statement added.

2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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