You can always count on America to give the world a lead. Just as it kicked off the credit crisis, so it stays at the cutting edge as the crisis unfolds. So much the worse for the rest of us.

Phase I – the writedown of dodgy securities – is by no means over, but is no longer the big story. Phase II – the travails of ordinary commercial banks – is now well under way. And this, of course, is the mechanism whereby the credit crunch transmits itself to the real economy.