Here's what policy-makers hoped would happen following the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. After years in which many Western countries had become dependent for growth and prosperity on debt-fuelled consumption and property inflation, there would be a miraculous rebalancing of the world economy into a more sustainable order of things.
In the West, there would be a renewed focus on saving, investment and exports, while those in the developing world, grown fat on exporting to us, would throw off their addiction to saving and trade, and would instead become consumers.
