demand and employment in a reapplication of Keynes’ ideas for our times (Insight 2), whilst also engaging in monetarist responses, the like and scale of which have never been seen before. Governments have committed to capital injections, issued debt guarantees and coordinated interest rate cuts in an effort to restore liquidity and boost their economies with a counter-cyclical stimulus. In the US, the Federal Reserve has boosted bank reserves and switched to asset purchases and credit programmes as its main policy tools10, while the Bank of England has engaged in quantitative easing. accelerate job creation, while strengthening social safety nets. Long after fi nancial markets stabilize, workers may be left still counting the cost, as the fi nancial crisis leaves behind a more enduring “jobs crisis” in countries around the world. The speed of transmission of the economic malaise to different economies has also been exceptionally rapid. Globalization and the pooling of risk in toxic ‘mortgage-backed securities’ have weakened investment and commercial banks around the world8, necessitating state intervention and the forced recapitalization of a number of major banks. In some countries, a private debt crisis has now become a public debt crisis, with government debt growing rapidly - in some advanced economies, levels of government debt are now approaching their highest levels since World War Two9. The IMF notes that policy-makers are now challenged with skillfully navigating between avoiding an early withdrawal of fi scal stimulus that could curtail economic recovery, whilst trying to avoid levels of public debt that could cause concerns about fi scal sustainability11. Debate over the respective role of the public and private sector has, to some extent, been superseded by the need for action, as public attention now focuses on stimulus plans to promote economic recovery. Amidst the turmoil, policy-makers have scrambled to respond with various measures to curtail the downturn and promote recovery. Governments have launched massive economic stimulus plans to boost 16 Confronting the Crisis: ICT Stimulus Plans for Economic Growth