The year 2009 started on a very bad note for the US economy due to the massive Lehman Bros collapse. The entire banking system was on the verge of collapse, and the new Obama administration took the bold and revolutionary step of providing billions of dollars of tax payer’s money for bailing out these companies.
The funding was extended unconditionally to banking majors, automobile majors and also mortgage majors. This resulted in avoiding further collapse in the US economy. But the first two quarters showed negative growth rate for the US economy, which has now recovered very well.
The Quarter four of 2009 has been the best in the recent history of US economy, with the GDP pegged at 5.9% annualized rate. How far the growth can be sustained is a billion dollar question which nobody wants to bet on now.