It came as a nasty surprise to almost everyone 15 years ago this Friday, when Lehman Brothers failed and the world found itself on the cusp of a greater financial collapse. In response, a few politicians blamed capitalism and used the crisis as cover to extend their powers.

The then-prime minister Kevin Rudd declared that “the great neoliberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed”, because it had “not served Australia well in preparing for the current crisis”.