How Do We Fix This Mess

The BBC's business editor explains in his characteristically straightforward way how the world got itself into the current economic mess—and offers a map of what needs to be fixed, in order that we might get out of it

The record-breaking growth between 1992 and 2008 wasn't the economic miracle that it seemed. It was based on a number of dangerous illusions—most notably that it didn't matter that the UK and U.S. year after year consumed more than they earned. But we couldn't go on increasing our indebtedness forever. The financial crash of 2007/8 and the subsequent economic slump in much of the west was the moment when we realized we had borrowed more than we could afford to repay. So who got it wrong? Bankers, investors, and regulators? And were they greedy, stupid, or asleep? What was the role of government? And what part did we, as consumers, play in all this? How do we get through this difficult period of transition to a more sustainable economy, one based on investment and exports, rather than on borrowing and consumption? With probing lucidity, Robert Peston takes us step-by-step toward a common sense way to fix this mess.

Robert Peston is the BBC's business editor. Prior to joining the BBC, he was political editor and financial editor of the Financial Times, city editor of the Sunday Telegraph, and a columnist for the New Statesman and Sunday Times. He has won numerous journalism awards, including Journalist of the Year and Scoop of the Year (twice) from the Royal Television Society, Performer of the Year from the Broadcasting Press Guild, Broadcaster of the Year and Journalist of the Year from the Wincott Foundation, and Business Journalist of the Year from the London Press Club. Laurence Knight has been a business journalist at the BBC since 2010, and has written extensively for the BBC website on the global financial crisis. He spent six years at Deutsche Bank in London and New York.