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 policymakers scrambled for responses – to the point of then US Treasury secretary Hank 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 past two months, the Financial Times has published a Comment and Analysis series on the future of capitalism. Now is a good time to take stock of the lessons of that debate.