In Chapter 9 of The Gods that Failed, Larry and Dan point out the strange frequency of the phrase ‘perfect storm’ in the media - no longer just a meteorological term, it is now the official tagline of crisis in general.

 ‘The state of the global economy in the first half of 2008 made it a prime candidate for the “perfect storm” thesis… As the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Simon Johnson is hardly one for apocalyptic visions of the future, but in November 2007 he popped up to warn of a “perfect storm” caused by the interaction of turmoil on the financial markets and the spiralling cost of energy.’

Today, Larry Elliott and Ashley Seager report on Mervyn King’s admission that we will see more ‘turmoil in the markets,’ and his plan for improved regulation. And it seems the storm is spreading to the rest of the world. In South Africa, the national Times reports a ‘near perfect storm in housing.’