A decade on from the financial crash, we are still suffering its long burn

In the autumn of 2008, the world's financial system was in the grip of a downward spiral. In the years since then, a rising sense of injustice has altered our politics, but networks of global finance are still far from safe. Ben Chu looks back at how the crash unfolded and considers whether we have learned our lesson

The crash was the deepest recession in the UK for nearly a century (Reuters)

Cast your mind back 10 years. Survey the political scene. What can you see?

The Labour Party has been in power for 11 years. And it seems to be winning the big argument. The new leaders of the Conservative Party, David Cameron and George Osborne, have stopped calling for tax cuts and are instead pledging to match Labour’s public service spending plans. “Sharing the proceeds of growth” is the mantra.

Survey the economic scene. What’s going on there? Well, there’s much talk on the business pages of newspapers of a somewhat mysterious “credit crunch”. Northern Rock went under the year before. House prices are down. The stock market is looking a bit sickly. The economy seems to be slowing.