Lessons from a crisis

摘要

One by one, European leaders have lined up to hail the triumph of welfare over Wall Street. "The idea that markets are always right was a mad idea," declared the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. America's laissez-faire ideology, as practised during the subprime crisis, "was as simplistic as it was dangerous", chipped in Peer Steinbruck, the German finance minister. He added that America would lose its role as "financial superpower". The Italian finance minister, Giu-lio Tremonti, claimed vindication for a best-selling book that he wrote earlier this year about the dangers of globalisation.