Consumption and credit for households in the run-up to crisis and in the efforts to overcome recession 1

The financial crisis which arose in the US in 2008 is still the most important event and the major condition affecting economies today. However, the interpretation of its underpinnings is not simple, and neither has been the impact of the efforts to come back to the ‘normal path’ of economic development. If the sources of the crisis are limited to the behaviour of the financial sector, it may seem easy to repair this situation, perhaps introducing better regulation to ensure economic recovery. However, the consecutive stages of crisis in Europe have shown that curing one disease (defaulting banks) may bring about another (sovereign debt) followed by depressed demand which hampers growth.