This paper asks whether, and how, the state can solve the present crisis. The method of enquiry is to analyze what it did in the two comparable crises of 1893 and 1929. In each case, a prolonged and structural slowdown in the world economy was followed by financial crisis, a period of turmoil...

This paper was due to be presented to the 2013 conference of the World Association for Political Economy, in Florianopolis, Brasil. In the event, the author was unable to attend. The paper summarises the main conclusions of ten years of research into the Creative Industries in London and the UK,...