No doubt the satisfying emotion of schadenfraude – pleasure at the pain of others – is coursing through the minds of central bankers and policymakers in emerging markets, who for long bore the brunt of US hectoring about free-market principles. They are probably also saying their hosannas for having resisted financial innovations to some degree or another, thanking that for the fact that their economies have not yet been pummeled by the unfolding crisis to as great an extent as the US.