The main lesson – as we see clearly today and has long been clear – is that the countries most affected by the crisis are those in which the crisis was not only macroeconomic but also financial – the United Sates, Ireland, and Iceland, to name only three.
Countries that sustained no crisis in their financial systems recovered relatively quickly; Israel and many countries in eastern Asia fall into this group. As stated, however, the global environment remains complicated and we must beware of complacency. Another lesson relates to the origin of a very large number of financial crises in the realestate industry.