what happened to the United states in the 2008 financial Crisis? explain in detail Solution It was very touff time for US economy ,after great recession of 1930.And as per IMF it was the worst global recession since world war 2. According to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (the official arbiter of U.S. recessions) the U.S. recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, and thus extended over 19 months. The crisis was caused by: Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve.