If we look at the period from when the credit crunch began to be visible in the United States in the autumn of 2007 until the crisis hit fully in September 2008, we see that the issues in that time were, for example, the capital adequacy ratios for banks, the degree of regulation of products that were in the shadow banking market and whether the prospectuses for rights issues that were issued in March 2008 were wholly honest about the circumstances of the institutions.