The writer is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge university, and adviser to Allianz and Gramercy

When Joe Biden became vice-president 12 years ago, he joined an administration dealing with a major economic heart attack in the form of the financial crisis. Today, the new president leads a country confronting not a single but multiple self-reinforcing crises. Responding well will require supplementing smart economic policy design with agile political manoeuvring at a time when financial markets remain focused on a “pedal-to-the metal” Federal Reserve.

The major challenge in 2009 was to stabilise dysfunctional financial markets threatening to tip the world into a depression. This was achieved through a combination of extraordinary monetary and, to a lesser extent, fiscal responses. Barack Obama’s administration avoided a major economic calamity. But losses in the 2010 midterm elections closed its political window for major legislation, and it was unable to provide a solid runway for high growth that was both inclusive and sustainable.