Oh that seems reasonable. I'm not really sure it was so obvious that I deserved down votes.

I gave you an up-vote.. it makes sense that "2008 means financial crisis" but on the other hand many things happened in 2008 and not all of them had to do with that crisis. Especially if you are not in Financial Services. One would argue that the crisis started a lot earlier, or that in many countries the actual crisis became apparent in 2009-2010-2011.

Not everyone in this forum lives in the USA and people should remember that :)

In addition 2008 was 9 years ago. There are people here today that were 7 or 8 years old at the time. They might know that things were rough if a parent lost a job - but are unlikely to have the wider context.

I also up-voted you, since asking for clarification to understand an implied connection (to an unmentioned event) is a completely reasonable thing to do. I would have done the same if I didn't see the connection, and everyone should be encouraged to post questions if something is not clearly stated.