Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3, South Bank University London (Business Faculty), course: International Finance, language: English, abstract: In total, we've lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed. We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime. (Fox News,2008) - in 2008 US president Barack Obama summarized the impact of the financial crisis on the US economy. The US construction industry, which accounts for approximately 8% of the overall GDP and employs 6.7 million workers, was adversely affected by the financial crisis (Research and Markets, 2010 - see figure 1). James Sudbury a consultant for the construction industries analyzed in August 2008: The markets changed dramatically in the last three months. Thereused to be plenty of money all over the street. Now, it's difficult to get it done with any major banks (Ireland& Writer 2008). In conjunction with other relevant factors the significantdependency on a high cash flow level, contradicting the money and capital market climate during the financial crisis, has strongly driven the negative economic trend of the industry.In order to examine the impact of the financial crisis on the US construction industry by business segment this paper first summarizes external influences and outlines basic principles of corporate finance.