ある金融危機の描写

問題
以下の一連の文章は、さる本からある金融危機の描写を抜き出したものですが、一体どの金融危機を描いたものでしょうか?

Dire warnings of impending economic doom started being heard above the euphoric shouts of the millions who had recently vaulted into the middle and upper classes. Suggestions to balance budgets and limit credit at all levels of the economy were ignored. Instead, creative effort was expended to come up with one way after another of putting more spending power in the hands of a populace that had forgotten how to say 'wait', much less 'no', to itself.

多くの人が中流や上流階級に上がった経済ブームというと、90年代のアジアを思い起こしますね。 それとも、低利の住宅ローンで多くの人が持ち家を持つようになった今回の米国のブームを指しているのでしょうか? クレジットの歯止めが無くなり、創造的工夫により人々が本来持つべきでない支払い能力を手にするようになった、というと、値上がりする住宅を担保にした借り入れにより消費が増えていった今回の図式が当てはまりますね。
いずれにせよ、ユーフォリアの中で破局の警告を発したのは例によってクルーグマンだったのでしょうかね?

...three of the largest international banks announced that they were insolvent because of bad loans. Within two days a panic had spread around the world.

多国籍銀行が潰れて2日で世界にパニックが広がったというと、やはり今回の危機のような気がしますね。でも、あの時潰れたのは3行ではなくリーマンだけだったような気がしますが…。

The catatyst for the relatively rapid collapse of the existing institutional infrastructure was the market crash and subsequent breakdown of the global financial system; however, these events would not have been sufficient, by themselves, to project the world into a period of unprecedented depression. ...Inept world political leaders first denied or ignored the existing economic problems, then overreacted with a suite of individual measures that were baffling and/or inconsistent, and finally threw up their arms in despair as the global crisis deepened and spread. Attempts to coordinate international solutions were doomed to failure by the increasing need of each of the sovereign nations to respond to its own constituency.

あれ? 今回の危機の話にしては話が先に進みすぎているような…。確かにそうしたことが起きるのでは、という懸念が広まりつつありますが(例えば、「近隣窮乏化策はもう始まったのか?」と題したここ)。
ひょっとして30年代の大恐慌の話だったのでしょうか?

With hindsight, it was obvious that the internationalisation of the world which had taken place during the twenty-first century had been flawed in at least one significant way. Although many activities - communications, trade, transportation, currency regulation, peacekeeping, information exchange, and environmental protection, to name the most important - had indeed become international, most of the agreements that established these international institutions contained codicils which allowed the individual nations to withdraw, upon relatively short notice, if the policies promulgated under the accords 'no longer serves the interests' of the country in question. In short, each of the nations participating in the creation of an international body had the right to abrogate its national involvement, unilaterally, when it was no longer satisfied with actions of the group.

でもやはり21世紀初めと書いてありますね。しかもユニラテラリズムの話も出ているし。

..most of the newer international institutions had become understaffed and inefficient. Thus the global market crash took place in an environment where there was already growing doubt in the minds of the populace about the efficiacy of the entire network of international organisations. As the financial chaos continued, it was an easy step for individual nations to stop contributing funds to the very global funds and organisations that might have been able to turn the tide of disaster if they had been used properly, that were vitiated first by the near-sighted political leaders.

でもやはり話が先に進みすぎていますね。今のところIMF世界銀行はまだ健在ですし。

In the first two years the major problems were skyrocketing unemployment and bankruptcies, both personal and corporate, but these financial difficulites seemed unimportant as the ranks of the homeless and starving continued to swell. Tent and box communities appeared in the public parks of all the big cities...

何か恐ろしいことが書いてありますね。2年後には、高い失業率や破産の問題が霞んでしまうほど、街にはホームレスが溢れていると…。

………

で、ここで種明かし。
さる本とは、実はこれだったのです。

Rama II

Rama II

ということで、描写した金融危機とは、「Great Chaos」と呼ばれる22世紀のものでした(分かるわけありませんよね)。


なお、1989年に書かれた本なので、当然、執筆当時は著者たちはアジア危機や今回の危機を知りません。基本的に大恐慌をベースにしていると思われます。


願わくば、今回の危機がこれと同じ展開になりませんように…。



P.S. 
小生は持っていませんが、邦訳はこれ。

宇宙のランデヴー2〈上〉 (ハヤカワ文庫SF)

宇宙のランデヴー2〈上〉 (ハヤカワ文庫SF)

宇宙のランデヴー2〈下〉 (ハヤカワ文庫SF)

宇宙のランデヴー2〈下〉 (ハヤカワ文庫SF)