Sometimes historical perspective is needed to shrink the events of the present into their proper context. The current crisis is about as unprecedented as the passage of the seasons.

In 1907, New York markets were in the grip of an identical panic. The background was an equity bull market that had turned sour, leaving leveraged speculators with substantial book losses. The speculators found that their access to short-term finance was curtailed, as lenders at the Exchange’s Money Post became nervous about their viability.