[BobbyJo]

As a young adult in 2007, what cliff were we close to?

The GFC was a big recession, but I never thought society was near collapse.

[edmundsauto]

We were pretty close to a collapse of the existing financial system. Maybe we’d be better off now if it happened, but the interim devastation would have been costly.

[zeroonetwothree]

It felt like the entire global financial system had a chance of collapsing.

[verzali]

We weren't that far away from ATMs refusing to hand out cash, banks limiting withdrawals from accounts (if your bank hadn't already gone under), and a subsequent complete collapse of the financial system. The only thing that saved us from that was an extraordinary intervention by governments, something I am not sure they would be capable of doing today.