The Global Financial Crisis: Causes, Channels of Contagion and Potential Lessons

Allusions to a US-limited subprime mortgage crisis have long died out. Few local analysts and politicians would dare claiming that their country is shielded from the financial crisis effects as the storm unfolds worldwide. Left to the unknown is its scale, sequencing, distribution effects between regions and countries and the consequences for the future architecture of the financial system. As critical as the quality of the day-to-day management of the crisis is the understanding of what has happened and what may happen, whence the need for an interim diagnosis, even one incomplete and involving a certain margin of misperceptions and wrong interpretations.