Larger risk buffers in the form of additional capital are not enough, however. More attention needs also to be paid to the “big picture”, the system as a whole. If the crisis has taught us one serious lesson, it is that the tightly networked international financial system can cause events which start out as isolated shocks to rapidly go global and unleash systemic effects.
It used to be much like the Bundesbank, but now it acts more like the US Federal Reserve.