ABSTRACT
The financial crisis that erupted in September 2008 was one of the worst since the great depression in the 1930s, and it immediately became one of the top issues on political, media, and public agendas across the world. It was a clear example of a focusing event, defined by Birkland (1998: 54) as an event “that is sudden; relatively uncommon; can be reasonably defined as harmful or revealing the possibility of potentially greater future harms; has harms that are concentrated in a particular geographical area or community of interest; and that is known to policy-makers and the public simultaneously.” What made the financial crisis particularly exceptional is that it was a global focusing event. It originated in the US, but had profound effects worldwide.
