A brief history of the credit crunch
Updated on 02 October 2008
Faisal Islam in New York speaks to three of America's leading financial gurus and asks, how long it will last?
As the final nail is hammered into the coffins of the "shadow banks" which fuelled credit outside the traditional mould, an industry that was once worth trillions of pounds sees the collapse of the world's oldest investment vehicle, Sigma Finance.
Whatever happens to the various bailout plans this crisis has changed the very fabric of the system.
Not just high finance, but of all of our lives, from mortgages to shopping habits.
