The time for a higgledy-piggledy, institution-by-institution and country-
by-country approach is over. It took me a while – arguably, too long – to realise the full dangers. Maybe it was errors at the US Treasury, particularly the decision to let Lehman fail, that triggered today's panic. So what should be done? In a word, “everything”. The affected economies account for more than half of global output. This makes the crisis much the most significant since the 1930s.
採用雜亂無章、一家機構接著一家機構、一個國家接著一個國家的解決方式的時代已經過去。我花了一些時間——可以說是太長的時間——才意識到全部的風險。或許是美國財政部的錯,特別是任憑雷曼兄弟(Lehman)倒閉的決定,引發了今天的恐慌局面。那麼,我們應該做些什麼呢?一言以蔽之,就是「任何事情」。被波及的經濟體佔全球產出的一半以上,使得這場危機在很大程度上成爲20世紀30年代以來最重大的危機。