As heads of government gather this week at US president George W. Bush’s invitation to discuss the economic crisis, I am sure all will agree that greater international co-operation is needed. What we require is positive action to address the world economic downturn and new architecture to ensure future global imbalances are better managed. Also needed is greater understanding of the massive regulatory and budgetary failures closer to home. Blaming the bankers does not amount to a policy.

We need solutions to address J.K. Galbraith’s wry observation that a feature of any bubble is the tendency of markets and governments to believe they have ended history; that some new technological or political or demographic change justifies what would previously have been seen as excess.