Larger than economy: Interpreting the global financial crisis

Late in 2008 a crisis exploded in the financial centre of Wall Street that brought the global economy to a standstill. Banks and protobanks failed on a significant scale and those that did not refused to deal with each other because they had lost faith in the settlement system. Global trade faltered. It could not be financed. Massive interventions by governments and central banks were practised around the world – especially in the US heartland. They continue into 2013 in the ‘advanced’ economies, especially in the form of printing money. For a period of months the world held its breath. Slowly it found a way to go on, although with an unfolding crisis taking one form, then another.