Markets Panic as the Global Economy Enters a New Phase

The world is awash with financial drama. Markets are swinging rapidly between extremes. Stocks -- particularly banking ones -- are largely declining and safer assets, such as bonds and gold, are on the rise. Falling global banking stocks are bringing uncomfortable feelings of deja vu to those of us who worked through the 2008 crisis. There are various reasons why the markets should be worried, but the main one is structural: the end of the post-2008 phase in U.S. monetary policy. The key question now is whether the measures taken in 2008 averted a depression, or just postponed one....