But things turned out otherwise. If we are to learn some lessons from the financial crisis, we must first get a grip on the elements that finally led to the crisis. Anatomy of a crisis Several books have already been written on the various stages of the crisis and its causes, including some good ones.
1 These provide a picture of an intricate web of profligate risktaking, human greed, short-sightedness and policy errors. I will try to simplify this scenario by concentrating on four crisis elements. The first crisis element relates to the global macroeconomy and its imbalances.