On Monday September 15, 2008 – two years ago this week – the US stock market suffered its biggest single-day points fall since the terrorist attacks of September 11, as the market digested news of the $600bn bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers – the largest in US corporate history – and the shotgun marriage concluded hours earlier between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. But, two years on, in many ways the world is increasingly looking much the same as it did before.