Both the past and future of our financial system remain as poisonous a topic as they were five years ago, when Lehman Brothers failed. That is a lesson to draw from the forced withdrawal of Lawrence Summers, former US Treasury secretary, from the list of candidates for chair of the US Federal Reserve. For many Democrats, Mr Summers is responsible for the financial liberalisation that led, in their view, to the crisis of 2007-09. Indeed, the debate about the origins and aftermath of the crisis is not over. How can it be when the exceptional policies it caused are still with us?
不管是金融體系的過去還是將來，都與五年前雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)倒閉時一樣，仍是一個有毒的話題。這是美國前財長勞倫斯•薩默斯(Lawrence Summers)被迫退出美聯準(Fed)主席候選人名單所帶來的一個教訓。在很多民主黨人看來，薩默斯要對導致2007-09年那場危機的金融自由化負責。的確，關於危機起源和後果的辯論仍未結束。在我們仍未告別危機帶來的特殊政策時，又怎麼可能結束呢？