Credit crunch in cartoons

August 2007: Fears about the financial health of America's biggest home lending specialist, Countrywide Financial, sent the Dow Jones down sharply. The US Federal Reserve pumped $17bn of short-term funds into the financial system in an attempt to improve liquidity Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

September: The OECD urged America's central bank to insure against the prospect of recession with an immediate cut in interest rates as it emerged that the crash in the US housing market had left real-estate activity at its weakest since the economy was brought to a halt by the terrorist attacks on 9/11 Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

October: The investment bank Merrill Lynch slumped to the biggest loss in its 93-year history as its finances were pummelled by $7.9bn (£3.9bn) of liabilities from the summer's credit crunch, prompting an apology from its chief executive Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

November: Northern Rock's bail-out proved a profound shock to the City's reputation and had serious political ramifications. The approach of the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, to the crisis left him openly and angrily at odds with some of the City's elite Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

January 2008: Fears mounted that Britain faced the kind of commercial property crash not seen since the early 1990s, as the big banks that led the way into these prominent office deals were in fast retreat from the sub-prime crisis and the wider credit crunch Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

March: Panic-stricken financial markets looked for a full one-point cut in interest rates from the US Federal Reserve, amid fears that the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns could be the trigger for a global financial and economic meltdown Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

April: UBS, one of the world's largest investment banks, wrecked its reputation as a bastion of financial stability after it admitted that losses stemming from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis had spiralled by £10bn in the first three months of the year to total almost £19bn Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

April: Northern Rock came under fire from MPs, unions and investors for agreeing to give former chief executive Adam Applegarth a £760,000 "golden goodbye Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

April: Almost four pubs a day were closing for business, taking down their swinging signs and their hanging baskets and boarding up their windows. It was the most powerful signal yet that one of Britain's oldest, most resilient industries was in a dire state Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

April: Mervyn King launched the Bank of England's biggest attempt yet to end Britain's nine-month credit crunch while insisting that the taxpayer would be protected from the unlimited financial support on offer to mortgage lenders Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

April: Royal Bank of Scotland urged its shareholders to support a record-breaking £12bn cash call - which they unanimously did - aimed at strengthening its capital position, weakened by a £5.9bn writedown on instruments related to the credit crunch Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

May: Forecasts that crude oil could soon be changing hands for $150 or even $200 conjured up images of what life might be like once the cheap oil that has been crucial to the development of modern industrial societies runs out Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

July: Gloom deepened on the high street as retail sales plummeted Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

July: Britain's consumers and businesses gripped by an ever-tightening credit crunch as banks withdraw mortgage packages and tighten lending conditions, the Bank of England warned Photograph: Guardian

July: Fears of a recession in the UK pushed the FTSE 100 into a bear market Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

August: The government gave Northern Rock fresh financial support after the nationalised bank ran up losses of almost £600m in the first half of this year Photograph: Kipper Williams/Kipper Williams

August: Sharp rises in the cost of food and fuel pushed the annual inflation rate to a 16-year-high of 4.4% last month and left it on course to hit 5% in autumn Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

September: The crisis that overwhelmed two of Wall Street's most prestigious banks - Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers - broadened to threaten the survival of the world's largest insurance company AIG Photograph: Guardian

September: As the financial storm blew over, Wall Street began to survey the wreckage. With the announcement that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs would become traditional deposit-taking banks, there were no pure investment banks left standing Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

October: Recession warning signs flashed for the UK economy after new figures showed factory output slumping Photograph: Kipper Williams/Corbis

October: Five bank bosses are paying the price for the £500bn taxpayer bail-out, including 'Fred the Shred' Goodwin at Royal Bank of Scotland Photograph: Guardian

The International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank announced a huge rescue package for Hungary in an attempt to save central Europe's former economic powerhouse from bankruptcy Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

November: Shoppers lured back on to the high street as stores slashed prices in an attempt to kickstart the vital Christmas trading period Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

December: Gordon Brown acts to stop wave of home repossessions Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

January 2009: Run on Royal Bank of Scotland shares raises prospect of nationalisation Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

February 2009: Arctic weather that struck Britain piled further difficulty on firms already struggling in the recession Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

February: Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive who took the Royal Bank of Scotland to the brink of collapse, is refusing to give back his £16m pension despite massive political pressure for the banker to abandon the £693,000-a-year payout Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

March: The Geneva Motor Show launches as the industry battles for survival Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

May: Ratings agency downgrades outlook for UK economy Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

Fury over RBS chief's £15m incentive to rebuild bank Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

Less than a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers brought the banking system to its knees, London's financial community is shaking itself down and getting back to the business of making money Photograph: Guardian

September: Britain is set to keep its top triple-A credit status after ratings agency Moody's announced today that a downgrade was unlikely despite spiralling public debt Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

September: Latest unemployment figures show the young are being hit hardest - while pensionable age workers are thriving Photograph: Kipper Williams/Guardian

September: The United States must brace itself for the dollar to be usurped as the world's reserve currency as American dominance wanes in the wake of the financial crisis, the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, has warned Photograph: Guardian

October: US bank Goldman Sachs proves the good times are back for bankers as it tots up $16.7bn in bonuses Photograph: Guardian