The big question for the investment world during the next several months is whether the credit markets can be rebooted with the tools Wall Street and the central banks have devised so far. The dei ex machinae of the year end were the investments by sovereign wealth funds, and those close to them, in US banks and broker-dealers. They helped avoid a more serious crisis of confidence in the ability of key institutions to get through the year-end liquidity squeeze and marks-to-market.

The accountants turned out to be the new power centre. In past crises they could be counted on to go along with whatever valuation joke was being told by senior management. It seems they learnt the lessons of Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen only too well, at least from the point of view of their clients.