Unleashing a golden age after the financial collapse: Drawing lessons from history

The current crisis is not a black swan but a recurrent historical event midway along the successive technological revolutions. In contrast with other crises, the ones that follow the major technology bubbles install a vast innovation potential that can be unleashed with adequate government policies. The so-called golden ages in the past two centuries (the Victorian boom, the Belle poque, the post war golden age) have followed post-bubble recessions. After governments save the banks and jump-start the economy, they need to regulate and reorient finance toward the real economy while fostering synergistic growth in agreed directions. The article holds that the possibility is there for unleashing a golden age national and global -by tilting the playing field in favor of green growth. The question is whether the conditions for government to become proactive again are as favorable as after WWII. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.