A winter of discontent (TT May08 p12-15)

At the advent of the credit crisis in July last year, few would have predicted that its impact would be so great or that the bank debt market would still be crippled eight months later. The world’s big banks and broking houses have written off over $200bn since the collapse of Northern Rock last summer, Bear Stearns has fallen and we’ve seen the demise of IKB in Germany. Add to that the derailing of a number of high-profile hedge funds and the extent of the problem for the global economy becomes clear.