Few celebrations as 10th anniversary of global crisis nears

Improving economy: People cross a street in the Shinjuku shopping and business district in Tokyo. Growth is picking up speed in Japan, prompting the Bank of Japan to start sending signals about eventually easing its economy off its huge stimulus programme. – Reuters

LONDON: In May 2007, Ben Bernanke, then chair of the Federal Reserve, said the problems in the US subprime mortgage market probably would not hurt the economy or the banking system.

With the admittedly huge benefit of hindsight, that was a misjudgement of epic proportions.