Hubris and Nemesis: The Global Financial Crisis

Any claim that western leaders know how to manage their economies was surely dealt a fatal blow by the crash of 2008. The uncertainties and confusion created by the global financial crisis — a crisis that was manifestly building over a long period but was almost entirely unforeseen by most western political and business leaders — must surely have undermined the primacy of neo-liberal ideology; and while, contrary to any rational expectation, the ‘Washington consensus’ remains the dominant ideological force in the West, it is hardly surprising that countries in the developing world are less convinced than they were that western investors and financial institutions have all the answers. The ideological debate remains alive and well in these countries, where the balance of advantage seems increasingly to rest with views other than those that are still hardly challenged in the West.