London - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who was Wednesday given an academic briefing on the origins of the credit crunch, wound up the "lesson" with the searching question of why nobody had seen the crisis coming.

The 82-year-old monarch had the complexities of the current global financial crisis explained to her during the inauguration of a new building at the renowned London School of Economics (LSE).

The origins and effects of the crisis were explained to her by Professor Luis Garicano, director of research at the LSE's management department, the Press Association reported.

Prof Garicano said afterwards: "The Queen asked me: 'If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them? Why did nobody notice it'?"

When Garicano explained that at "every stage, someone was relying on somebody else and everyone thought they were doing the right thing," she commented: "Awful." (dpa)