London burning, stock markets melting… time for structural change!

The events of the last few days stand as a reminder of how ‘small’ episodes, from the – always unlawful – killing of a young man in London to the – otherwise unimpressive – downgrading of the credit-worthiness of USA government bonds, can trigger huge and uncontrollable chains of events. The (anticipation of and eventual) downgrading of the USA led to a mini stock market crash that wiped out in the space of two weeks asset values equal to the annual GDP of Germany. And the shooting of Mark Duggan in London led to a British “Athens December 2008” moment that left within 72 hours hundreds of shops looted, dozens of homes burned down and, reportedly, more people dead.