THE US MARKET COLLAPSE HAS REMADE OUR WORLD

Adecade ago, US financial services giant Lehman Brothers collapsed. That event triggered the landslide that became the most severe global financial crisis since the 1930s. Draw a line from that moment—September 15, 2008—to all that came next.

The US financial crisis triggered a global recession and a European sovereign debt crisis severe enough to call the very survival of the Eurozone into question. It also persuaded China’s leaders that economic reform could no longer wait.

A wave of unrest swept across North Africa and West Asia. A street vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire and within days the country’s government fell. Egypt’s Mubarak went to prison. Libya’s Qaddafi was executed in the street. Yemen exploded into violence. Syria sank into a civil war that has killed or displaced half the country’s population. Oil prices fell from $147 per barrel in the summer of 2008 toward $30 per barrel, shifting the international balance of power. The unrest in West Asia triggered a new crisis in Europe as more than two million migrants made their way north in search of safety and a better life—transforming European politics by generating fear of insecurity and lost European identity. Angry, fearful voters began to reject establishment political parties.

Faced with a European future and a leap into the unknown, British voters chose to jump. The 2016 US presidential election then pushed aside a highly qualified and very familiar candidate in favour of a brash businessman who had never before run for office. Trump is the first person ever elected US president who had never before served in government or the military.

In 2017, French voters said no to the political establishment. The long-dominant political parties of centre-right and centre-left were swept aside in favour of a candidate who had never before run for office. Emmanuel Macron led a party he had created from nothing just one year before. German

NEWS OF THE WEEK

SEPTEMBER 18: The Union Cabinet has authorised the Ministry of Industrial Development to impose notified selling prices for Fiat, Standard and Ambassador cars. The ministry is being advised by legal experts to enforce the decision