The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was approved by President Barack Obama in 2009, and consisted on a stimulus package released with the aim of preventing the destruction of jobs, fostering the creation of new ones, and boosting the aggregate demand as a mechanism for economic recovery. Therefore, recovery was sought through the Keynesian way.
The economic downturn had begun in 2007 and led to the Great Recession due to the financial crisis and the subprime mortgage payment failures. The financial crisis ended up affecting the real economy and starting the worst recession since 1929, which was spread all over the world, specially affecting other developed countries such as many European states.