On August 9, 2007 France's largest bank announced that it would suspend trading in two huge investment funds it controlled. The same day three German banks revealed that they were close to collapse. A few days later came the first run on a British bank since the 1860s as vast queues of worried investors besieged Northern Rock. Within weeks, the government was forced to bail out this previously little known bank to the tune of 30 billion, share prices in other mortgage lenders were plummeting, and alarming news arose from several banks in the United States. Award-winning journalist Alex...