Introduction. Crisis and Need for Renewal of Public Action

Confronted with the major crisis that struck the world economy at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century; analysts, researchers, and political leaders, studied past experiences to avoid repeating errors of diagnosis, recommendation, or action. The disastrous experience of the Great Depression of the 1930's, which caused social misery, massive unemployment, protectionism, forms of nationalism, and led to a world war whose devastating effects were pushed to an extreme, remained in mind. These unpleasant reminders of the past led the world's decision makers quite judiciously to resort to public intervention on a very large scale, rather than rejecting such action or delaying it for doctrinal reasons, in an effort to remedy the crisis. Things had been quite different, however, during the period when the crisis was emerging. A general laissez-faire attitude prevailed then, especially toward a deregulated financial system that had developed hyper-speculative behaviors with assets that were opaque and subject to high risk. The ensuing banking crisis of September 2008 forced states from that time forward to act massively and urgently: the world economy was facing a systemic threat of general collapse due to the rationing of credit and deep mistrust by the banking sector...