As the credit crisis grew worse, companies sought loans and aid from the government. The Treasury’s answer was a 700 billion dollar rescue plan.
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
This week, we continue our look back at the major economic stories of the year. On September 15th, Lehman Brothers, a 158 year-old investment bank, sought legal protection from its creditors. It had failed to find a buyer after months of searching.
With over 600 billion dollars in debt, Lehman's failure was the largest bankruptcy in United States history. At the same time, the nation's biggest insurance company, American International Group, had gotten into trouble selling credit default swaps. These are contracts similar to insurance that protect the holder against credit risk.
Credit rating agencies downgraded A.I.G. because of concerns it could not honor its contracts. Unable to get new loans, A.I.G. asked for government help. The Federal Reserve agreed to loan A.I.G. 85 billion dollars in return for 80 percent of the company. But it was not enough. By November, the government had extended a total of about 150 billion dollars in aid to A.I.G — the most to any single company during the crisis.
As banks refused to lend, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed a plan to loosen credit markets by buying risky assets. Congress approved the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 on October 3rd. The bill provided 700 billion dollars to buy hard-to-value securities from banks.
But within weeks, the government changed plans. The Treasury moved to invest 250 billion dollars directly in banks to help them lend money again.
Lack of credit not only hurt banks but manufacturers, too. Falling car sales threatened America's carmakers. The big three automakers -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- told Congress that they needed loans or they faced bankruptcy. In December, President Bush offered G.M. and Chrysler over 17 billion dollars in loans.
As the year ended, the Federal Reserve tried to support economic growth by lowering its main interest rate to nearly zero for the first time. But there was one more bad surprise. New York money manager Bernard Madoff admitted he had cheated investors out of 50 billion dollars. The news only added to the sense that 2008 was the worst economic year since the 1930s.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.