Five years after crisis began, we still can't see the elephant

The global financial crisis is five years old - more or less. There is some disagreement over when precisely it began. A lot of newspapers now seem to have fixed on August 9, 2007, as the fateful day. But looking back through the archives, I see the South China Morning Post warned US credit markets were in crisis on August 3, a week earlier.

Whatever the exact date, the convulsions have gone on ever since. First we had the credit crunch, then the bursting of the mainland stock market bubble, followed by the commodity boom that saw the price of oil hit a record US$144 a barrel.

Then came the implosion of Lehman Brothers, a stock market crash that wiped US$20 trillion off the value of shares globally, the collapse of world trade, recession in the developed world, and finally the euro-zone's debt crisis, which continues to weigh on economic prospects around the world.

In that time, blame for the crisis has been pinned on all sorts people. Accusing fingers have pointed at hedge funds for shorting the market, at regulators for negligence, at subprime homebuyers for reckless borrowing, at ratings agencies for failing to accurately assess credit risk, and of course at bankers for excessive greed.

The identification of so many culprits by so many commentators recalls the story of the blind philosophers and the elephant.

One grasped the animal's trunk, and declared the elephant to be a snake. Another felt its tail, and said it was a rope. A third felt its leg and announced the elephant was a type of tree. The fourth touched a tusk and said it was an enormous … But you get the idea: none of the philosophers saw the whole picture.