The Great Recession (2008-2009) was an economic recession largely caused by the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the subsequent financial crisis on Wall Street. The administration of President George W. Bush took unprecedented measures to backstop the U.S. financial system and wider economy in 2008 with its Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). This program was designed to purchase non-performing assets from financial institutions, such as subprime mortgage loans and related financial instruments, which had been responsible for the crisis. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his department were given an initial authorization to spend up to 700 billion U.S. dollars on the program, although this was later lowered to 475 billion. From 2008 to 2012, the TARP program disbursed 417.6 billion U.S. dollars to purchase troubled assets and equity in the companies which held such assets. Of these funds, the majority was spent on the bank support programs, while significant amounts also went to bailouts of the car manufacturing industry and to the insurance giant American International Group (AIG).

On October 3. 2008, the United States Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). TARP was essentially a government bailout package designed to purchase non-performing assets and equity shares from financial firms which had come close to bankruptcy during the Global Financial Crisis. In particular, the measures sought to address the issue of the vast number of toxic subprime mortgage assets which were on the balance sheets of U.S. financial institutions. TARP programs for banks, car manufacturers and insurance U.S. financial institutions were suffering from a loss spiral, whereby they were forced to sell assets in order to remain liquid (able to meet short-term financing needs with cash), but the act of having to sell these assets decreased their market price, requiring the firms to sell more assets. This spiral was quickly causing panic on financial markets, requiring government intervention to backstop asset prices and prevent further bankruptcies. Of the approximately 418 billion U.S. dollars disbursed by 2012, the majority went to bank bailout programs, while smaller amounts went to bailouts of the automotive industry and the insurance group AIG. A majority of the funds were paid back to the U.S. government through sales of assets or repayments by the receivers of support, while around 23 billion was written off or declared as a loss.

The Federal Reserve's balance sheet has undergone significant changes since 2007, reflecting its response to major economic crises. From a modest *** trillion U.S. dollars at the end of 2007, it ballooned to approximately **** trillion U.S. dollars by June 2025. This dramatic expansion, particularly during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic - both of which resulted in negative annual GDP growth in the U.S. - showcases the Fed's crucial role in stabilizing the economy through expansionary monetary policies. Impact on inflation and interest rates The Fed's expansionary measures, while aimed at stimulating economic growth, have had notable effects on inflation and interest rates. Following the quantitative easing in 2020, inflation in the United States reached ***** percent in 2022, the highest since 1991. However, by *************, inflation had declined to *** percent. Concurrently, the Federal Reserve implemented a series of interest rate hikes, with the rate peaking at **** percent in ***********, before the first rate cut since ************** occurred in **************. Financial implications for the Federal Reserve The expansion of the Fed's balance sheet and subsequent interest rate hikes have had significant financial implications. In 2023, the Fed reported a negative net income of ***** billion U.S. dollars, a stark contrast to the ***** billion U.S. dollars profit in 2022. This unprecedented shift was primarily due to rapidly rising interest rates, which caused the Fed's interest expenses to soar to over *** billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Despite this, the Fed's net interest income on securities acquired through open market operations reached a record high of ****** billion U.S. dollars in the same year.

This poll, fielded March 20-22, 2009, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way Barack Obama was handling the presidency and issues such as the economy, the financial institutions bailout, insurance company AIG bonuses, and foreign policy. Views were sought on the condition of the national economy, and the level of confidence in Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner's handling of the financial crisis. Respondents were also asked their views on companies receiving federal bailout money, whether they approved of the federal government providing money to banks and other financial institutions, whether the media, President Obama, and Congress was spending to much time on the bonuses paid to AIG executives, and whether Congress was spending the right amount of time trying to solve the nation's economic problems. Several additional questions addressed AIG including whether AIG could have found a way not to pay bonuses to their executives, whether the federal government should try to recover the money used for bonuses, how many of the executives respondents thought would return the bonuses, and whether the federal government should give additional financial assistance to AIG if needed. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, marital status, education level, household income, political party affiliation, political philosophy, and voter registration status and participation history.

This statistic shows the national debt of Greece from 2020 to 2023, with projections until 2030. In 2023, the national debt in Greece was around 420.4 billion U.S. dollars. In a ranking of debt to GDP per country, Greece is currently ranked third. Greece's struggle after the financial crisis Greece is a developed country in the EU and is highly dependent on its service sector as well as its tourism sector in order to gain profits. After going through a large economic boom from the 1950s to the 1970s as well as somewhat high GDP growth in the early to mid 2000s, Greece’s economy took a turn for the worse and struggled intensively, primarily due to the Great Recession, the Euro crisis as well as its own debt crisis. National debt within the country saw significant gains over the past decades, however roughly came to a halt due to financial rescue packages issued from the European Union in order to help Greece maintain and improve their economical situation. The nation’s continuous rise in debt has overwhelmed its estimated GDP over the years, which can be attributed to poor government execution and unnecessary spending. Large sums of financial aid were taken from major European banks to help balance out these government-induced failures and to potentially help refuel the economy to encourage more spending, which in turn would decrease the country’s continuously rising unemployment rate. Investors, consumers and workers alike are struggling to see a bright future in Greece, whose chances of an economic comeback are much lower than that of other struggling countries such as Portugal and Italy. However, Greece's financial situation might improve in the future, as it is estimated that at least its national debt will decrease - slowly, but steadily. Still, since its future participation in the European Union is in limbo as of now, these figures can only be estimates, not predictions.

Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank on Wall Street, declared bankruptcy on the 15th of September 2008, becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The investment house, which was founded in the mid-19th century, had become heavily involved in the U.S. housing bubble in the early 2000s, with its large holdings of toxic mortgage-backed securities (MBS) ultimately causing the bank's downfall. The bank had expanded rapidly following the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, which meant that investment banks could also engage in commercial banking activities. Lehman vertically integrated their mortgage business, buying smaller commercial enterprises that originated housing loans, which allowed the bank to expand its MBS holdings. The downfall of Lehman and the crash of '08 As the U.S. housing market began to slow down in 2006, the default rate on housing loans began to spike, triggering losses for Lehman from their MBS portfolio. Lehman's main competitor in mortgage financing, Bear Stearns, was bought by J.P. Morgan Chase in order to prevent bankruptcy in March 2008, leading investors and lenders to become increasingly concerned about the bank's financial health. As the bank relied on short-term funding on money markets in order to meet its obligations, the news of its huge losses in the third-quarter of 2008 further prevented it from funding itself on financial markets. By September, it was clear that without external assistance, the bank would fail. As its losses from credit default swaps mounted due to the deepening crash in the housing market, Lehman was forced to declare bankruptcy on September 15, as no buyer could be found to save the bank. The collapse of Lehman triggered panic in global financial markets, forcing the U.S. government to step in and bail-out the insurance giant AIG the next day on September 16. The effects of this financial crisis hit the non-financial economy hard, causing a global recession in 2009.

Attitudes towards the European Union. Cooperation between the EU and the own country. Trust in institutions. Globalisation. Global crisis. Environment. Energy.

Topics: 1. Attitudes towards the European Union: life satisfaction; frequency of discussions about political matters on international, national, and local level with friends and relatives; opinion leadership; most important personal values; assessment of the current situation in the following areas: national economy, global economy, personal job situation, financial situation of the own household; expected development in the next twelve months regarding: national economy, personal job situation, financial situation of the own household, national employment situation, personal life in general; most important problems in the own country; general direction things are going in the own country; image of the EU; characteristics that best represent the European Union; assessment of the relations of the own country with the EU; awareness of financial support for the own country provided by the EU in the context of cooperation programmes; knowledge of specific programmes; areas with the highest benefit from current European Union’s policies for the own country; attitude towards the following statements: EU has appropriate level of involvement in the own country, EU brings peace and stability in region surrounding the own country, EU is an important partner of the own country, sufficient common values of own country and EU as the basis for cooperation, EU support contributes a lot to own country’s development, position taken by the EU during the Arab Spring was supportive of local populations; prioritized areas the EU should play a greater role in in the own country.

1. Cooperation between the EU and the own country: attitude towards selected statements: appropriate amount of information on the EU available in the own country, clear communication from the EU regarding the own country, communication from the EU not considering reality of life in the own country; most effective actors in helping economic development in the own country; most effective actors in helping security and stability in the own country; extent of contribution of the following local actors to economic development in the own country: national government, presidency (not in MA, JO, EG), private companies in the own country, national banks, NGOs, religious organisations; most important areas of cooperation between the EU and the own country; preferred area to focus EU’s development aid for the own country on.

2. Trust in institutions: trust in selected media: printed press, radio, TV, internet; trust in the following institutions: European Union, United Nations, NATO, Arab League (only in DZ, EG, TN, JO, LB, PS, MA); trust in selected national bodies: national government, national parliament, regional public authorities, local public authorities, political parties; satisfaction with democracy in the own country and in the own region; extent of applicability of the following elements to the own country: freedom of speech, free elections, gender equality, protection of the rights of minorities, independence of justice, freedom of press, rights of vote, respect of human rights, rule of law, good governance, lack of corruption; elements that best describe the concept of democracy.

3. Globalisation: awareness of globalisation; attitude towards the development of globalisation; preferred statement with regard to globalisation: good opportunity for national companies thanks to the opening-up of markets, threat to employment and national companies; attitude towards the effect of globalisation on: economic growth in the own country, cultural exchanges between countries, solidarity between countries, employment in the own country; benefit for each of the following actors from globalisation: consumers, financial markets, EU, United States, China, Japan, multi nationals, small and medium sized companies, developing countries, farmers; attitude towards selected statements on globalisation: requires common global rules (´worldwide governance´), leads to price increases in the own country, leads to more foreign investments in the own country.

4. Global crisis: assessment of the impact of the crisis on the national economic situation; impact of the economic crisis on the job market has already reached its peak; most effective actor in fighting the effects of the crisis in the own country: national government, European Union, United States, Arab League (only in DZ, EG, TN, JO, LB, PS, MA), NATO (not in LB), a G8 or G20 country, United Nations or one of its agencies (not in IL), Arab funds, private charitable foundations, GUAM Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development (only in MD, GE, UA, AZ), single economic area with other CIS countries (only in AM, AZ, GE, MD, UA, RU, BY), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (only in UA, AM, AZ, GE), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank...

Attitudes towards the European Union. Cooperation between the EU and the own country. Trust in institutions. Global crisis. Mobility and migration.

Topics: 1. Attitudes towards the European Union: life satisfaction; frequency of discussions about political matters on international, national, and local level with friends and relatives; opinion leadership; assessment of the current situation in the following areas: national economy, global economy, personal job situation, financial situation of the own household; expected development in the next twelve months regarding: national economy, personal job situation, financial situation of the own household, national employment situation, personal life in general; most important problems in the own country; general direction things are going: in the own country, in the Arab world (only in DZ, EG, TN, JO, LB, LY, PS, MA), in the European Union, in the world; image of the EU; assessment of the relations of the own country with the EU; awareness of financial support for the own country provided by the EU in the context of cooperation programmes; knowledge of specific programmes; areas with the highest benefit from current European Union’s policies for the own country; attitude towards the following statements: EU has appropriate level of involvement in the own country, EU brings peace and stability in region surrounding the own country, EU is an important partner of the own country, sufficient common values of own country and EU as the basis for cooperation, EU support contributes a lot to own country’s development; prioritized areas the EU should play a greater role in in the own country.

1. Cooperation between the EU and the own country: attitude towards selected statements: appropriate amount of information on the EU available in the own country, clear communication from the EU regarding the own country; most effective actors in helping economic development in the own country; most effective actors in helping security and stability in the own country; extent of contribution of the following local actors to economic development in the own country: national government, presidency (not in MA, JO), private companies in the own country, national banks, NGOs, religious organisations, regional public authorities (not in IL), local public authorities; most important areas of cooperation between the EU and the own country; preferred area to focus EU’s development aid for the own country on.

2. Trust in institutions: trust in selected media: printed press, radio, TV, internet; personal account on: facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Vkontakte (only in RU, AM, AZ, BY, GE, MD, UA), Odnoklassniki (only in RU, AM, AZ, BY, GE, MD, UA), Netlog (only in DZ, EG, JO, LB, LY, MA, PS, TN), Lifejournal (only in RU, AM, AZ, BY, UA); frequency of using the aforementioned networks; trust in the following institutions: European Union, United Nations, NATO, Arab League (only in DZ, EG, TN, JO, LB, PS, MA); trust in selected national bodies: national government, national parliament, regional public authorities, local public authorities, political parties; satisfaction with democracy in the own country and in the own region; extent of applicability of the following elements to the own country: freedom of speech, free elections, gender equality, protection of the rights of minorities, independence of justice, freedom of press, rights of vote, respect of human rights, rule of law, good governance, lack of corruption; elements that best describe the concept of democracy.

3. Global crisis: assessment of the impact of the crisis on the national economic situation and the personal situation; experienced loss of job due to crisis: respondent himself / herself, family member or close friend, colleague.

4. Mobility and migration: likelihood of moving to another country in the next two years and name of countries intended to move to; knowledge test on selected aspects with regard to legally migrating to another country: where to find information concerning legal migration, procedures which have to be followed, chances of rejection of visa applications; expected duration of stay; reasons for moving abroad; preparations for moving abroad; relatives or friends in country to move to; most important difficulties when moving to another country; assumed development of the number of people migrating from own country to a European country in the last twelve months; awareness of illegal migration via the Mediterrane...

This statistic shows the national debt in the member states of the European Union in the second quarter of 2024. The data refer to the entire state and are comprised of the debts of central government, provinces, municipalities, local authorities and social security. In the second quarter of 2024, Greece's national debt amounted to about 369.4 billion euros. National debt in the EU member states National or government debt is the debt owed by a central government. No country in the European Union is debt-free, although some are able to manage their debts better than others. Debt is influenced by the economic situation of a country, factors such as unemployment, the rate of inflation or the trade figures have a significant impact on its extent, and are, in turn, influenced by the national debt. The economic crisis has hit some EU countries harder than others; Spain, Ireland and Greece especially have been struggling economically since 2008. Greece’s national debt has skyrocketed over the past few years, and the same can be said about Spain and Ireland. Other EU countries, like France and the United Kingdom have been affected as well, albeit not as severely. The national debt of a country can be reduced by applying several measures: money can be borrowed (for example in the form of rescue packages), austerity programs can be enforced, taxes can be increased or central banks can inject liquidity into the economy through the implementation of quantitative easing policies. Some critics of the policy claim that this could lead to a higher level of inflation, which, if severe enough, could have a detrimental impact on living standards.