10 Years after the Crash, what have we learnt?

2017 marks 10 years since the global economic crash struck. The first signs were from Paribas in August 2007 and Northern Rock failed in September 2007. Prep Foundation, run by RSA Fellow, Henry Leveson-Gower, will be using the various 10th anniversaries of Crash events to focus debate on how the economics profession can, and needs to change.

You may recall that in 2008 the Queen embarrassed top economists at the LSE by asking ‘why no-one had seen the crash coming’. They took about a year to give an answer which said that it was basically hubris and 'group-think' combined with inadequate economic models, but the most important thing was to learn from the experience.

To gauge whether this has actually happened 10 years on, Prep Foundation approached a representative sample of 1,000 people in the UK on Monday and asked the following question: "To what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement: the people responsible have improved their understanding of how to manage the UK economy since the Crash of 2007/8".

29% agreed or agreed strongly and 36% disagreed or disagreed strongly (others were neutral or didn't know). The response was fairly uniform across income and gender, but those living in the North were more likely to disagree than those in the south (41% to 31%) and those over 45 were more likely to disagree than those younger (40% to 32%).

Surprised or not? Who has learnt lessons and what should we have learnt? How significant has the crash been in causing subsequent events? Prep Foundation would like to know what you think. 

Take their survey and share your opinion here.