Beyond the financial crisis The global crisis prompted more than the loss of a string of financial institutions. It also inflicted collateral damage to the economic ideology that had sustained the rich world, or at least the US – that of finance capitalism.
For much of the 20 years since the end of the cold war, the US – with sporadic support from industrialised countries, such as the UK, and institutions, including the International Monetary Fund – had propagated the gospel of economic liberalisation and financial deregulation. Having evoked scepticism among its audience, particularly after episodes such as the 1997-8 Asian crisis, the global financial crunch might have been expected to bury that message for good.
