There is a hierarchy of precedents for financial crises. In August, as things began to unravel, the initial comparisons were with the 1998 collapse of Long Term Capital Management. That is, a freak event in which the sins of a few egg-heads temporarily hit confidence. Then, as it became clear that banks were in pain, the comparator became the 1980s and 1990s Savings and Loan crisis that saw bank losses worth 3 per cent of US 1990 economic output.

Now, after a very nasty week in markets, the whispers are that it might even be the big one: the worst crisis since the 1930s. Signals of distress abound: Friday’s non-farm payroll data were awful, the US auction rate market is closed, banks’ shares are collapsing, interbank rates are back in the danger zone and debt spreads are ballooning. Even sovereign borrowers such as Italy are being hit. Meanwhile credit funds that made silly bets are dying. This week Carlyle Capital, a $21bn vehicle with net debt/book equity of 3,150 per cent as of December, missed margin calls.