{"id":1203,"date":"2025-10-02T04:03:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/the-financial-crisis-and-how-the-times-they-are-a-a-changin\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:03:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:03:55","slug":"the-financial-crisis-and-how-the-times-they-are-a-a-changin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/redeveloping-finance\/the-financial-crisis-and-how-the-times-they-are-a-a-changin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Financial Crisis And How The Times They Are A A Changin"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content column wide left blog_post content view\" id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"edit image\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/images\/24636-3-eng-gb\/the-financial-crisis-and-how-the-times-they-are-a-a-changin_full_view.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Svenwerk\">\n\t<\/div>\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<div class=\"share\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    var addthis_config = {\n        ui_language = 'en'\n    }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis sharing\">\n\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style\" addthis:title=\"The financial crisis \u2013 and how the times they are a a-changin\u2019\">\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_twitter\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_pinterest_share\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_preferred_4\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_compact\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style\"><\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_config = data_track_addressbar;<\/script><br \/>\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"addthis article_options\">\n\t\t<!-- \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/mandrill\/subscription\/add\/4619\/4654\">Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t -->\n    \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe financial crisis \u2013 and how the times they are a a-changin\u2019<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubDate\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/de-haan-arjan\/\">Arjan de Haan<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t08 November 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The ISS conference \u2018Crisis of Capitalism? Crisis of Development\u2019 highlighted the great and probably increasing diversity in perspectives on this \u2018global\u2019 crisis. One the one hand there is the perception of and focus on the nucleus of the crisis, the financial system in the Anglo-Saxon world that had created its own bubble following the promises of liberalization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The impact of this on what economists call the \u2018real economy\u2019 (strangely suggesting my savings in banks and pension funds were not real) will be felt for a long time, even though the signs now as Rob Vos (UN-DESA) noted at the conference are that it\u2019s unlikely that we are facing a depression like the Great one of the 1930s, and the world\u2019s political leaders deserve at least some credit for at least responding better to the crisis than their counter-parts in the 1930s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">We don\u2019t know what the long term impacts will be \u2013 predictions are just very hard to make, particularly those about the future. It is notable however how quickly the mood has changed. Half a year ago there was a great deal of optimism that the crisis could be an opportunity, for a more just global economy than the one that had seen ever growing inequalities previously, for a more proactive state along the model of FDR\u2019s New Deal, and perhaps even a green deal given the simultaneous environmental crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The mood now \u2013 at least at this and other conferences I attended \u2013 appears much more sober, with indications that labour markets will not restore to previous levels of employment, linked to that continued rising disparities between returns to capital and wage, and much uncertainty about where a New Green Deal might come from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Voices from outside the OECD context strike me as remarkably different. For China, the crisis does not appear as a crisis of capitalism. In China, this is often seen as a crisis of the western system, and one witnesses a fair amount of Schadenfreude about the problems faced by a usually arrogant West, and certainly a very healthy increase in confidence regarding the further emergence of the Chinese economy, gradually taking back its place in the world economy it deserves and indeed had 200 years ago before western intervention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">But these are probably mere symbols, of a visibly rising and welcome nationalism, as the key concerns for China are how to continue on its path of modernisation, within its political system, and particularly how to maintain growth rates of 8 percent while the world economy is contracting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">For Gong Sen of the State Council\u2019s Development Research Centre, in China the crisis is not one of capitalism, and the question is really whether the state is able to promote a more equitable system, and is able to address the institutional problems and vested interests in health, education and housing, which are currently critical blockages to promote more equitable development paths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">In other emerging economies too, the interpretation of the nature of the crisis differs from what is regularly discussed in OECD countries. For the President of Brazil, Lula, who has put the time that stock markets went down on the prospects of him coming to power long behind him, the problem was not capitalism per se but the irrationalism in the West.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\u2018It is a crisis caused and encouraged by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes,\u2019 he said in March, \u2018who before the crisis appeared to know everything, but are now showing that they know nothing.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">And in the critical analysis of Professor Jayati Ghosh, the crisis is only a small part of the problem, with the previous boom being not only inherently unstable but also increasingly unequal. The problem is, however, that while not everybody benefited from the boom, very few are escaping the effects of the downturn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">This thus is a very different crisis than that of the 1930s, not only because of the better international cooperation, but also because the economic powers seem to be shifting as we speak. It was soon after the crisis broke out in the US, and while 20 million workers in China were losing their jobs, that ads started to appear in the Chinese papers for trips to the US to buy houses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The international financial imbalances \u2013 which did not cause the crisis but were an integral part of the unbalanced system \u2013 continue to exist. While the emerging economies are weathering the crisis, they also continue to enhance their global economic power. This is not new and not caused by the crisis, but it appears to be happening ever more rapidly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">However, there are few signs that the new order will be any more just than the previous one: may be a more equal and long overdue readjustment in favour of the emerging economies, but with few signs this will make much difference for the poorest countries, nor the poorest people in those poorest countries, or indeed elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"credit\">Photo credit main picture: Photo by Svenwerk<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"disqus_content\">\n\t\t\t<a name=\"comments\" id=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_shortname = 'broker'; \/\/ required: replace example with your forum shortname\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_identifier = '3648';\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tfunction trackComment(comment)\n\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tfunction disqus_config() {\n\t\t\t\t\tthis.callbacks.onNewComment = [function() { \n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t\t}];\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t(function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tvar dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text\/javascript'; dsq.async = true;\n\t\t\t\t\tdsq.src = '\/\/' + disqus_shortname + 'https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/blogs\/redeveloping-finance\/.disqus.com\/embed.js';\n\t\t\t\t\t(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);\n\t\t\t\t})();\n\t\t\t<\/script><br \/>\n\t\t\t<!--\n\t\t\t<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\/?ref_noscript\">comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/noscript>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\" class=\"dsq-brlink\">comments powered by <span class=\"logo-disqus\">Disqus<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t-->\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The financial crisis \u2013 and how the times they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_2.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1203","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The financial crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and how the times they are a a-changin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \/ Redeveloping finance \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ISS conference \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCrisis of Capitalism? 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One the one hand there is the perception of and focus on the nucleus of the crisis, the financial system in the Anglo-Saxon world that had created its own bubble following the promises of liberalization.The impact of this on what economists call the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreal economy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (strangely suggesting my savings in banks and pension funds were not r...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/redeveloping-finance\/the-financial-crisis-and-how-the-times-they-are-a-a-changin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The financial crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and how the times they are a a-changin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \/ Redeveloping finance \/ Blogs - The Broker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ISS conference \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCrisis of Capitalism? 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Crisis of Development\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 highlighted the great and probably increasing diversity in perspectives on this \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcglobal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 crisis. One the one hand there is the perception of and focus on the nucleus of the crisis, the financial system in the Anglo-Saxon world that had created its own bubble following the promises of liberalization.The impact of this on what economists call the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreal economy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (strangely suggesting my savings in banks and pension funds were not r...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/redeveloping-finance\/the-financial-crisis-and-how-the-times-they-are-a-a-changin\/","og_type":"article","og_title":"The financial crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and how the times they are a a-changin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \/ Redeveloping finance \/ Blogs - The Broker","og_description":"The ISS conference \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCrisis of Capitalism? 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