The sudden and shocking collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of the most well-known financial institutions in the world, marked a seminal moment in economic history.

It triggered a dramatic meltdown across the globe, resulting in a credit crisis.

But in reality it all began back in 2007, with warnings in the US over banks' subprime liabilities, when bad debts began to outnumber their assets.

And as banks realised they could not recoup on their losses, the panic started to spread.

One year later, we are still struggling to come out of this meltdown as unemployment continues to rise in the US and Europe.

Are we any safer than we were a year ago? How well paved is the road to recovery? Have we learnt our lessons from the global meltdown? And could this happen again?

Inside Story presenter Shiulie Gosh is joined by Allister Heath, the editor of the business and finance newspaper City AM, by Peter Schiff, the president of the Brokerage Euro Pacific Capital and author of the book Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse, and Raghavan Seetharaman, the CEO of Doha Bank.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Sunday, September 13, 2009.