Strategy and Crisis

In mid-July 2007, the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds triggered a crisis that will make history for its extraordinary global virulence. Its most devastating effects, the virtual breakdown of the system, planetary terror, were not to be felt until 2008, but then lasted (albeit with less fear of systemic apocalypse) right through 2009 and 2010, while in 2011 its aftermath is still affecting some countries, mainly among the developed world. We should recall that this crisis was first a financial one, with huge losses for many institutions in that industry and their customers. Losses were so great that they cast doubt on the whole system; the world shook when a giant such as Lehman Brothers fell. Only the historic intervention by all the main central banks stopped panic developing into the most profound chaos.