Second, relative to real investment in equipment and software, real investment in nonresidential structures has become significantly less important over the past several decades, a development that has reduced the relative importance of fluctuations in this component of investment for changes in real GDP.
The Federal Reserve took this action because it judged that, in light of the prevailing market conditions and the size and composition of AIG's obligations, a disorderly failure of AIG would have severely threatened global financial stability and, consequently, the performance of the U.S. economy.