When did QE1 happen and what did it do? Multiple Choice The Fed's QE1 action happened in the last four months of 2008 and this was the first time the Fed vastly increased the U.S. money supply by $1 trillion to fight the beginning of the 2008 Financial Crisis. The QE1 Program was set up in 2008 and it authorized China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia to get extra interest payments because they help us greatly because they buy so much U.S. government debt. The QE1 Program happened in 2008 and it made the U.S. dollar the world reserve currency. The Fed's QE1 program was only designed to help our allied countries around the globe who were also suffering from the fallout of the 2008 Financial Crisis