The market collapse blame game

ACCORDING to an old proverb, success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. That proved to be all too true of the 2008-09 Great Recession. In the aftermath, nobody in the policymaking, financial or academic communities stepped forward to accept responsibility for the worst global economic setback in the past 70 years.

It's unlikely anyone will take credit for the current global market free fall, which, after three days, is clearly not just a correction but an overdue unwinding of years of excess. Whether the damage remains limited to markets or spills over into the general economy remains to be seen, but we could well be on the verge of another global financial crisis.

This despite the fact that former Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen repeatedly reassured us that we would not see another global economic crisis in her lifetime, while the academic economic community again distinguished itself by its virtual silence as bubbles formed in the market over the past few years.