The 2008 financial collapse posed the biggest challenge to the global economy since the Great Depression. Unlike the 30’s the global economic governance system survived. A study of the University of Amsterdam explains how. The results are published in the journal ‘Global Networks’, Eelke Heemskerk, Meindert Fennema (UvA) and William K. Carroll (University of Victoria) show that global actors did not withdraw into their national business communities after the financial crisis. Instead of securing one’s particular (national) interest, as happened in the 1930’s, corporate elites sought consensus. At all costs a collapse of the world financial system had to be avoided.