It was spreading around the globe, “not just here in Manhattan Island.” Since the first tremors had shaken the financial markets in 2007, the world had repeatedly reassured itself that the “worst had passed.” But, again and again, “the light at the end of the tunnel” had revealed itself as “an oncoming train hurtling forward with new shocks to the global financial system.”3 Whatever America’s efforts at stabilization were, they were not working.
