After the stock-market crash of October 1929 it took over three years for America’s government to launch a series of dramatic efforts to end the Depression, starting with Roosevelt’s declaration of a four-day bank holiday in March 1933. In-between, America saw the worst economic collapse in its history. Thousands of banks failed, a damaging deflation set in, output declined by a third and unemployment rose to 25%. The Depression brought enormous damage across the globe, but most of all on America’s economy. As a result, the boundaries between government and markets were redrawn.
During the past month, little more than a year after the financial storm first struck in August 2007, America’s government made its most dramatic interventions in financial markets since the 1930s. At the time it was not even certain that the economy was in recession and unemployment stood at 6.1%. In two unstable weeks the Federal Reserve and the Treasury between them nationalized the country’s two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; took over AIG, the world’s largest insurance company; in effect extended government deposit insurance to $ 3.4 trillion in money-market funds; temporarily banned short-selling in over 900 mostly financial stocks; and, most dramatic of all, sworn to take up to $700 billion of bad mortgage-related assets on to its books. The Fed and the Treasury were determined to pr the kind of banking disaster that caused the Depression. Shellshocked lawmakers were picky, but Congress and the administration ually agreed.
The landscape of American finance has been radically changed. The independent investment bank -- a crucial Wall Street animal that relied on high leverage(杠杆作用) and wholesale funding -- is now all but disappear. Lehman Brothers has gone bust; Bear Steams and Merrill Lynch have been swallowed by commercial banks; and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley ’have become commercial banks themselves. The "shadow banking system" is transforming at lightning speed. And in little more than three weeks America’s government, all told, expanded its gross liabilities(负债) by more than $1 trillion -- almost twice as much as the cost so far of the Iraq war.
Beyond that, few things are certain. In late September the turmoil spread and intensified. Money markets seized up across the globe as banks refused to lend to each other. Five European banks failed and European governments fell over themselves to support their banking systems with rescues and guarantees. As this special report went to press, it was too soon to declare the cr contained.
What is Congress and the administration’s attitude towards the Fed and the Treasury’ actions