with bulging coffers after the IPO, which contributed to how the company weathered the two following years after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 15, 2008, milestone that divided two eras. What happened next has already been extensively discussed and analyzed by experts. It seems to be a consensus that there was excessive leverage in the global economy during the years that precede the crisis, to a great extent created by the deregulation of the credit market responsible for the development of financial operations that could multiply the basis of financial assets unlimitedly. The effects of the credit bubble burst were felt immediately, plunging the world into a financial crisis of massive proportions. Several forecasts were made about the years to come and the impact of the crisis on local economies, increasingly interconnected. The risk of a systemic crisis seemed to be inevitable. Banks with liquidity and solvency problems, global credit crunch causing direct impacts on companies and on the economic growth, recession, unemployment and a reduction in investments. The 1929 crisis was back at discussion forums and the comparison seemed inevitable. However, the major difference of this crisis was the conclusion that its epicenter was the developed countries. The model that caused the imbalance was developed in the North and its consequences would have a global effect, said the experts. The monetary authorities of the United States and the European Union quickly act to try to avoid the deep recession of the beginning of the 20th century. They had learned the lesson through the basic principles of monetarism about the need to control the money supply, thus avoiding a collapse. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England pumped large sums of money into the system in an attempt to boost global liquidity. If the crisis had culprits, they seemed to be the complex financial structures called derivatives, which became the stars of the virtuous cycle of global growth and ensured the necessary liquidity to promote the miracle of multiplication of the resources in circulation. From heroes to villains. Before these events unfolded, I have had the opportunity to talk with Brazils former Minister of Economy, Gustavo Franco, in an event sponsored by the Bank to which he was invited as a speaker and asked him about the puzzle involving the United States public debt. How was it possible to sustain a continuously growing debt and from where did the resources come to keep funding it? The economist gave me a simple answer. From the financial entanglement caused by the growing profits of short-sellers (hedge funds, investment banks and other speculators of the financial market) that kept feeding it through the vast mass of fictitious capital in circulation. The sense of unease that permeated the financial market after the outbreak of the crisis, in late 2007, contrasted with the feeling that surrounded the market since the beginning of the 21st century. In a world increasingly interconnected through technological advances, which enabled the creation of a global village connected by a great network, the distances have become shorter