Great Recession: distribution of U.S. government spending on TARP program 2008-2012

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).

2008年至2009年的全球金融危机，是一场主要由美国房地产市场崩塌及其引发的华尔街金融危机制成的经济衰退。乔治·W·布什总统政府于2008年采取了前所未有的措施，通过其问题资产救助计划（Troubled Asset Relief Program，简称TARP）来稳定美国金融体系及更广泛的经济。该计划旨在从金融机构购买非 performing assets，如次级抵押贷款及其相关金融工具，这些正是危机的罪魁祸首。时任财政部长亨利·保尔森及其部门获得了高达7000亿美元的初步授权用于此计划，尽管这一数额后来降至4750亿美元。从2008年到2012年，TARP计划共发放了4176亿美元，用于购买问题资产以及持有这些资产的公司的股权。在这些资金中，大部分用于银行支持计划，而相当一部分也用于救助汽车制造业以及保险巨头美国国际集团（American International Group，简称AIG）。