That Satoshi reappeared, by an order of magnitude. It would be news either way, but people have been searching for him/her/whatever "Satoshi" is for years now.
If we wanted to go down the conspiracy track, imagine if the NSA was behind it all. They are growing bitcoin large enough that tons of people rely on it, and also building up huge amounts of computing power in several large server farms. Then they can "switch the flip" - so to speak - and use a 51% attack to screw with the people who rely on it. While it wouldn't be very good to just crush the system as a whole (why would they have spent the effort in the first place?), they could selectively target their biggest nuisances by turning on their big building in Utah, take over the network for a few blocks and wipe out somebody's entire savings. Then they could shut off their building in Utah, and everything would chug along smoothly except for the one or two dudes they bankrupted.
Not actually as farfetched as that sounds. Keep in mind that alternative currencies are actually useful during economic downturns as a buffer to keep things afloat. Until now, such alternative currencies were extremely local: visitors to a place rarely know about its existence and aren't invited to participate.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, has been adopted in tandem with other currencies worldwide and has made international news. It may never succeed in some of its proponents' dreams of replacing fiat currency, but it's certainly visible enough to act as a global alternative currency during recessions.
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/3440