Decade on, lessons still from 2008 crisis

London

ON Thursday, August 9, it will be ten years since a panic freeze in banking liquidity paved the way to the 2008 financial crash.

The events before, during and after that period are a lesson to those who ignore signs of financial excess. The tenth anniversary of the liquidity crunch is also a warning that central bank intervention is a palliative but not a cure for the consequences of financial disorder. Today, the main concern is massive public and private debt that has been built up since the crash. History doesn't repeat itself in the same way but those events of ten years ago are a cautionary reminder to those who claim "this time it is different".

Today, central banks and governments are relying on tighter regulation to counter the excesses that brought about the crash. Compliance fines from 2007 to the end of 2016 amounted to a whopping US$321 billion, estimates The Boston Consultancy Group. But regulation can only partly work if the underlying ca…