An In-Depth Look at Coronavirus, Bitcoin, & the 2008 Housing Bubble

The U.S. economy still had not recovered from the 2008 crash, says Julian Zelizer. Zelizer: The balance sheet of the Federal Reserve Bank, our nation’s central bank, gives us a major clue. After Lehman Brothers failed in September 2008, the Fed used its computers to generate over $1 trillion in the course of a few months, in tandem with the federal government extending $700 billion in bailouts (bank welfare) Zelizer says the government helped plug a portion of the gap via increased spending that it financed through borrowing.