The 2007–9 financial crisis threatened economic disaster on a scale not seen since the Great Depression, but rapid state action prevented the widely feared devastation. The German response was considerably more generous to banks than the American or British bailouts. Drawing on interviews and...

Modern pension schemes are based on the delegation of responsibility for pension provision from state institutions to individuals, which implies voluntary retirement saving. Workers for profit (independent workers in household market enterprises) hold much greater personal responsibility for...