Glance at the more or less healthy stock markets in New York, London, and Frankfurt, and you might never know that this debate is raging. Hopes that Middle Eastern and Asian wealth funds will plug every hole lifts spirits.
Glance at the debt markets and you hear a different tale. Not a single junk bond has been issued in Europe since August. Every attempt failed.
Europe's corporate bond issuance fell 66pc in the third quarter to $396bn (BIS data). Emerging market bonds plummeted 75pc.
"The kind of upheaval observed in the international money markets over the past few months has never been witnessed in history," says Thomas Jordan, a Swiss central bank governor.
"The sub-prime mortgage crisis hit a vital nerve of the international financial system," he says.
A Voluntary Contraction of the Credit Market resulting in the Involuntary Liquidation of Physical & Derivative Assets at a Material Loss Causing a Severe Recession or even possibly a systemic financial meltdown