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In the immediate aftermath of the global financial collapse in 2008, something extraordinary happened in newsrooms across Britain and much of the developed world. For a brief moment, fundamental questions regarding the efficacy and ethics of the market system became commonplace. During this apex of the crisis, it was barely possible for even conservatively-minded journalists to avoid pondering the failures of capitalism. Professional journalism itself was to be roundly criticised for its failure to predict – and even prevent – the economic meltdown that followed the closure of Lehman Brothers, on that fateful day in September.
In the wake of the Lehman collapse, with some of the world’s largest banks poised to follow suit, governments on both sides of the Atlantic were faced with an imminent decision of whether and how to intervene. Given the scale of the crisis, the idea that the state had a role to play in containing it and stemming the damage caused to the wider economy, quickly became an accepted norm. It reinforced the narrative that de-regulated capitalism – central to the neoliberal project began in earnest by Thatcher and Reagan in the early 1980s – was no longer working. And it pointed the finger at a culture of greed and excess that had fermented in its wake, along with concentrated private power.
