And my conclusion has been that the recent crisis has been a composite one, in that it has involved all facets of past crises, including excessive financial liberalization policies such as financial engineering for example of derivatives, contagion to neighboring economies, large amounts of public debt, rigid exchange rate regimes, the generation of innocent bystander victims, and inefficient financial surveillance and regulation.
One notable difference this time, however, which has distinguished the recent crisis from past ones, is that our central banks have taken bold monetary and financial regulatory measures in response, through which collapse of the global financial system has been prevented. Yes, this time has indeed been different in that way.