Gearing up for the next big economic debacle, a decade on from 2008 crisis

A DECADE after the global financial crisis of 2008, pundits are tripping over themselves trying to predict when the next big economic catastrophe will hit.

Citing everything from the flattening yield curve to rising economic nationalism, the emerging consensus seems to be that 2020 could be the danger year. Indeed, downturns are cyclical.

The last crisis was a devastating one which wrought havoc on global financial markets. It killed jobs, destroyed lives, ravaged assets markets and brought the global financial markets to their knees. And it was caused largely by predatory practices of unscrupulous banks and bankers who sliced and diced sub-prime mortgages and sold them to unsuspecting customers, using their Wall Street credentials and famous brand-names. And when the house of cards collapsed, it came down on everyone, including the banks themselves. Fortunately, the US Treasury and Federal Reserve stepped in to rescue much of the banking system.