The recent global financial crisis has been analyzed in detail by several contributors. According to the “conventional wisdom” that emerged, many factors have contributed to the formation of the financial excesses that ultimately led to the creation of a huge bubble and unsustainable debt levels. In spite of the vast and still mushrooming literature produced on the subject, no consensus has been reached on the role of the various aspects that have attracted the attention nor on the links between them. Yet the issue is still hot with the advanced part of the world economy fighting against the prospect of a recession while also worried about the risk that the monetary weapons deployed may be dangerous for the world’s financial health engendering a new crisis. It is, in fact, a widely shared opinion that lax monetary policies played a major role in determining the macro-economic roots of the crisis and that new metrics are needed for central bank action. […]