If – or when – Hollywood produces the film Apocalypse Averted: the 2008 credit turmoil, last weekend’s meeting of G7 ministers in Washington could offer plenty of drama.

After all, if you are a scriptwriter seeking to make capital adequacy ratios appear thrilling, you could barely imagine a better scenario. First, we had a series of bank disasters; then the markets crashed. Finally, the mighty International Monetary Fund warned of looming armageddon as global leaders assembled to announce a commitment to bailing out the banks.