Not everything that is going wrong can be blamed on politicians or central bankers, of course: the private sector can also make spontaneous errors. But the US, UK, European and Japanese economies would not be in the position they are in today had the price system been allowed to clear freely and had policymakers allowed more of the malinvestments of the past to be liquidated more quickly. Kicking the can down the road can help ease an adjustment, but it can also allow denial to set in. Tragically, the latter is what appears to have happened in many economies and markets around the world.