In her lecture, the second in the series Global Perspectives on the Current Crisis organised by the Centre for Transnational History at UCL, Prof Stewart compares the current crisis with that of the 1980s, as well as setting up a comparison across countries. She argues among others that the current crisis may be steeper, but arguably more short-lived. She also shows that the current crisis has had very heterogeneous effects on different countries, which also provoked different reactions. A key argument she makes is that today, there is increased autonomy on part of the developing countries to react to the crisis, with more inclusive social safety nets in place that somewhat mitigate the effect of the crisis. This however shouldn't give rise to complacency. Social protection mechanisms need to be put into place during the normal development process, and more data on developments is equally needed.