Five years ago this week, the investment firm Lehman Brothers imploded, setting off the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and the fall of financial dominoes that produced the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Only concerted and concentrated work by financial authorities around the world staved off a second Great Depression. Instead, the world economy "only" suffered the Great Recession.
Five years later, stability has returned to the global financial system but it remains fragile. There have been efforts to ensure that the meltdown of 2007-2008 will not be repeated, but they remain a work in progress, with many projects stymied by finance industry resistance to measures that might reduce their ability to turn a profit.
More troubling still are the millions of people whose status was badly damaged by the downturn and who have not recovered. While national income has returned to pre-crisis levels, most of those gains have been captured by the highest earners: the poor and middle class remain stunted and battered by the events of a half decade ago.
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