LONDON — Following weeks of financial and economic turmoil, public debate has finally turned to the horrific potential human ramifications of the collapse of the global financial system.
Comparisons and contrasts with the Great Depression of the 1930s have inevitably become a central part of that discourse — and rightly so. There is much that the world can and must learn now from the lowest point of the 20th century.
Above all, we must heed the proven need for applying social — as well as economic — interventions in a time of economic crisis. Recession and depression can lead to exclusion and, at worst, persecution of societies' most vulnerable groups.