As Northern Rock has crumbled in recent days, Adam Applegarth, chief executive of the UK mortgage lender, has made little attempt to conceal his shock. “Nobody could [fore]see the squeeze on global liquidity ... Watching liquidity disappear has been astonishing,” he declared last week, adding that “life changed on August 9” when a sudden money market intervention by the European Central Bank revealed a broad freeze in the funding system.

Such comments about the unpredictability of events are unlikely to placate investors in Northern Rock’s shares, let alone the depositors who queued to get their money out. But Mr Applegarth’s comments highlight a crucial point about the spreading credit squeeze: behind the scenes many other private sector bankers, central bankers and regulators are also expressing astonishment at the turn of events.