Markets are diving, Germany and the eurozone are weak and there is alarm over Ebola and a potential banking bubble, so the themes were sombre when the IMF and World Bank met in Washington last week
Six years ago, finance ministers and central bank governors gathered in Washington for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund with the global financial system teetering on the brink. It was less than a month since the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers and in the aftermath no institution, however big and powerful, looked safe.
After staring into the abyss, they put together a co-ordinated plan to rescue ailing banks. This was followed by further joint moves when the drying up of credit flows plunged the world economy into recession. A second Great Depression was averted, but only just and at a price.
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