The Great Recession in 2008 was supposed to be a once-in-a-generation economic calamity. Just 12 years later, the United States is facing a far more daunting crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“This one is scarier to me, because we knew how to handle the other one,” former Rep. Barney Frank, a lawmaker who was central to crafting the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation, told Vox. “The other one was a result of human error and bad decisions. This is different.”
Among the central differences between the two is the unprecedented public health emergency that’s taking place now. Thus far, Congress has rushed to authorize a $2 trillion economic relief package, but interviews with several lawmakers and advisers who worked on the 2008 stimulus bills suggest the US government may have to think even bigger in the future — depending on how long the coronavirus outbreak lasts.
The size of the stimulus that’s been approved so far already dwarfs that of bills passed during the financial crisis. Taken together — the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that passed under President George W. Bush (also known as bailing out the banks) and the $840 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that passed under President Barack Obama — had a combined cost of around $1.5 trillion.
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“Everything this time is happening bigger and faster,” said Jason Furman, a former economic adviser to Obama, who played a key role in designing the administration’s response to the financial crisis.
For one thing, Republican lawmakers who obstructed Obama’s recovery efforts at the start of his term have shown no qualms in working with a Republican president to pass trillions in stimulus.
In 2009, “there was no Republican help,” former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as Obama’s chief of staff from 2009 to 2010, told Vox. “Mitch McConnell said forget it.”
A chart comparing the number of unemployment claims filed this week to those filed during the financial crisis also underscores a stark contrast in need. In the week ending March 21, unemployment claims nationally surged to 3.28 million, nearly quadruple the 665,000 claims seen in 2009 at the height of the recession.Answer:
Explanation: idk honesly just guessed ;-;
