HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF: Alan Dukes on how we can learn from the financial crisis

The proposals presented by Martin Wolf in ‘The Shifts and the Shocks’ merit close consideration if another crisis is to be avoided, writes economist and former finance minister Alan Dukes

THE sub-title of this profound, disturbing and prophetic analysis is “what we’ve learned — and have still to learn — from the financial crisis”, meaning, of course, the crisis that hit the Western world’s financial system in 2007 and the fallout from which continues to depress living standards in all the affected countries.

Martin Wolf is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. Since the onset of the crisis, his columns in that paper have provided thought-provoking and frequently contrarian views on the origins and nature of the crisis and on the actions of both the public and private sectors to deal with its effects.