Are there any things you are leaving out in 2008 and 2020-2021 in this analysis though? One self-inflicted from deregulating the finance industry, another a black swan event.
Running wars is a choice, a pandemic hitting not so much.
COVID was a black swan, the completely irresponsible and unnecessary redistribution from taxpayers to company owners that was the PPP was a choice. (One that most other governments worldwide didn’t make.)
> The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a $953-billion business loan program established by the United States federal government during the Trump administration in 2020
Running wars is a choice, a pandemic hitting not so much.