The sudden spike is crisis result. Bank and financial institution created bubble on market and it has bursted! So, what should government do? Wait until everything will go worser and worser? There were two variants:
1. Save banks and print money for this purpose
2. Do nothing and wait until the world will burn

As we know, government decided to save banks. Result of their desicion — almost all the banks survived and their mistakes became the problem of usual residents .