The world reserve currency status of the Dollar conferred to the United States much
flexibility in its monetary policy with the capacity to issue large amounts of debt without raising much concern from its creditors. This advantage was however heavily abused after the stock market contraction of 2001, when the Federal Reserve lowered considerably interest
rates with the expectation that it would trigger a new wave of investments in productive
activities and therefore a new cycle of economic growth. While central banks have a level of control over interest rates, they have limited if any control over the economic sectors that
accumulate the credit they create. For this cycle, credit accumulated in the real estate sector, thereby creating the most important speculative bubble in history. Facing rapid inflation of
their real estate assets, millions of consumers contracted additional debt, which otherwise
would not have been possible. A significant share of this debt went into consumption.