Many observers describe the turmoil in financial markets in 2007-08 in terms of a “domino effect”; others find metaphors drawn from “chaos theory” more appropriate. The chain-reaction element of the first and the patterned disorder of the second offer some grounds for making sense of these extraordinary and still-unfolding events. They are also useful in suggesting that since what is happening goes far wider than the financial sphere, so must the “imaginative” ways of capturing it.

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