Fears grow of repeat of 2008 financial crash as investors run for cover... As leaders gathered in Davos, FTSE 100 was gripped by panic selling and entered bear market with Dow Jones also plunging. – UK Guardian

Dominant Social Theme: Fears are growing as the world's economic system trembles on the verge. What to do?

Free-Market Analysis: Let us recall how long ago we were misled and what techniques were used. This Guardian article provides us with a proverbial "teachable moment."

In broadest terms, the article, like others of its type, is written to engage our emotions and excite our fears. Then, toward the end of the article, we are exposed to various solutions and soothing words that seem to indicate that all will be well sooner or later if we just trust the correct authorities. In other words, first the article excites and then it calms.

More:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid more than 450 points, or 2.9% in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid more than 450 points, or 2.9% in morning trading ... Earlier this week, China recorded the slowest rate of economic growth for 25 years.

You see? The drumbeat begins immediately. The statistics lend credence. Then there is this, the crux paragraph:

Fears that the global economy could be heading for a repeat of the 2008 financial crash have sent shockwaves through financial markets – prompting a rush to safe havens by investors. Oil prices fell to a fresh 12-year low on Wednesday and metal prices tumbled in response to warnings that China's slowdown could derail the global recovery at a time when central banks, which came to the rescue in the credit crunch, have only limited firepower.

First we are terrified and then, quietly, an oboe sounds – the first tentative notes of salvation couched in skepticism ... "Central banks, which came to the rescue in the credit crunch, have only limited firepower ..."

Some more:

William White, a former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bankers club, who now chairs the OECD's review committee warned that central bankers had "used up all their ammunition"... "The situation is worse than it was in 2007.

If central banks cannot help us, what can? Cleverly, the article suggests a sub-meme: the wisdom of the bankers of Davos. First we are reminded that White's pedigree is derived from the awesome power of the BIS and then this:

The BIS was one of the few organisations to warn during 2006 and 2007 about the unstable levels of bank lending that eventually led to the Lehman Brothers crash.

Okay, maybe the BIS did warn, but we can count on our fingers, toes and teeth, the many alternative media blogs and websites that were sounding the alarm about central bank low-rate profligacy throughout the 2000s. Of course, why let inconvenient facts spoil the music.

The head of the Swiss banking giant UBS, Axel Weber, turned the screw by warning that the world was stuck in an era of low growth ... His comments came after the chancellor, George Osborne, warned in a new year speech of a "cocktail of threats" to the UK's prospects from an increasingly uncertain world economy.

Minor chords are now being presented. Important people at the heart of business and finance are sounding the alarm. (Never mind that the alternative media has been doing the same thing far longer.)