The levees in New Orleans held fast as hurricane Gustav landed last week, sparing the city from the physical devastation experienced under Katrina. And had the levees fallen, the human tragedy would have been significantly reduced as most of the population had already been evacuated from the city.

This situation stands in stark contrast to the devastation that a deleveraging hurricane continues to wreak in the US and other parts of the world. Unlike New Orleans, the levees of the global economy have broken, one after another.