Now that the major central banks have bought some time for the credit markets, teams from the institutions are surveying the damage from the summer, pausing occasionally in their walks across the battlefield to shoot a wounded hedge fund and rifle its pockets for collateral.

Back in the staff tents, management is attempting to identify the particular errors that led to huge losses, so long, that is, as the errors were not theirs. One of the questions they ask, along with the politicians and the media, is whether the "models" were to blame for everything. Mathematical models of financial instruments have become the new witchcraft for people looking for someone, or something to blame for their own inattention and greed.