Some crises spread hysteria; some clear the mind and focus attention. This one has done both. Lehman Brothers' fall panicked financial markets into paralysis. Wrong-footed policy-makers scrambled for responses – to the point of then US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson's three-page proposal for a law to give him $700bn, no strings attached.
Since then, everyone has had time to think. In the last two months, the Financial Times has published a series of comment and analysis on the future of capitalism. Now is a good time to take stock of the lessons of that debate.
The crisis is unprecedented in the truly global reach of both its origins and its effects. Surpluses in emerging countries powered Western bubbles. When they burst, the crisis struck the core of the global system, leaving no country sheltered from its consequences. We have learnt at great cost the need to manage the global economy better – global financial markets in particular.
