Six weeks ago, as Bear Stearns was fighting to contain the collapse of two mortgage bond hedge funds it managed, Jimmy Cayne kept firmly to his normal summer schedule. The Wall Street bank’s chairman and chief executive nipped off to the golf course for a quick round on Thursday evening and after another 18 holes on Friday morning worked from home for the rest of the day.

By last Friday, things were rather different. Having seen the shares fall by almost a quarter, Mr Cayne was in the office and on an investor conference call, hastily convened after Standard & Poor’s had said there was an increased chance it would cut Bear’s credit rating.