10 years of Lehman crisis: The world has changed, but not enough

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers on September 15, a multi-part series analyses the lessons learnt and those not learnt from the global financial crisis

The fall of big-bulge investment bank Lehman Brothers and the global financial chaos that followed after defaults in subprime debt have had a major impact on the world economy and the financial system.

Regulators across the world, led by the US Federal Reserve (Fed), came out with bond-buying programmes, thereby supplying easy money and also made drastic cuts in interest rates. In August 2007, the Fed’s benchmark interest rate stood at 5.25 per cent. Today, despite seven rate hikes since December 2015, the rate is now 2 per cent. In the UK, the rate is 0.75 per cent, down from 5.75