Some say the lesson of the past few years is that you can't have a truly free global capital market without recurrent crises - because the free flow of capital inevitably leads to massive imbalances, and massive imbalances inevitably mean big crises when they get unwound (see my blog from 21 December).

BBC: IMF follows the money in Brazil

So, as the company slowly unwound its records, some papers from Bain continued to list Romney even though he had left the partnership.

CNN: Facts don't support Obama's charges against Romney

Companies have unwound most of the cross-shareholdings that sheltered them from the discipline of the capital markets.

ECONOMIST: Japan's economy

As cross-shareholdings are unwound, companies will no longer be able to count on unquestioning support from chummy corporate shareholders.

ECONOMIST: Japanese shares