Thursday afternoon was the moment America realised its version of capitalism was no longer working. You could feel the pain of that eureka moment from Wall Street to Main Street, where the middle class howled at the magnitude of a mooted $700bn bail-out package.

The most direct expression of this epiphany was on Capitol Hill, where an apostate faction of House Republicans declared their 11th-hour opposition to the financial plan being advanced by their own president and secretary of the Treasury.