September 2013 will mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the global financial crisis. It’s not an anniversary that we are likely to be celebrating. We’re more likely to be thankful that we’ve got this far without going under. For many, the collapse in September 2008 of Lehman Bros was proof of what they suspected — that the financial system was bursting at the seams, running to its limits and almost beyond repair. Almost but not quite. We know now how close the world came then to financial meltdown.
In Europe, the period since 2008 has been marked by: a severe economic recession and its lingering aftermath; implosion in the euro zone as systemic inequalities became overstretched and the deficit and debt bubble burst; the political, economic and social effects of the austerity that has become necessary; the search for the economic growth that would mitigate many of the negative effects of recession and austerity, but it’s proving elusive; tentative moves in the