Column: not only Anglo-Saxons erred

February 23, 2009 11:21pm

Has narrow, monocultural management led us all to disaster? There are those who will tell you it has. Nouriel Roubini, for example. The professor of economics at New York University put forward this view in the Financial Times a couple of weeks ago.

In the financial world, our lousy “Anglo-Saxon” system of supervision and regulation had in practice meant no regulation at all, he said. His comments prompted the arresting headline: “The Anglo-Saxon model has failed”.

Prof Roubini is not Anglo-Saxon. He was born in Istanbul to Iranian-Jewish parents. As a child he lived in Tehran, Tel Aviv and Milan, and speaks four languages. For once, the word polyglot really is justified.

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