Finance & economics | War bonds

Western credit markets are holding up remarkably well

Post-financial-crisis reforms are helping them weather the storm

CREDIT IS THE financial system’s oxygen supply. When it flows freely, it does so unnoticed. When it stops, soon enough everything else does as well. The hypoxic episode that felled the American investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008 unleashed chaos, turning a subprime-mortgage crunch into a global financial crisis. Ever since, central banks and market pundits have fixed a hawk-like gaze on credit conditions, wary of a repeat.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “War bonds”

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