August 10, 2007 (LPAC)--Panicked comments like these were widespread on Aug. 10, as bank analysts and brokers reacted to the global market meltdown. "Who will be next to come down with the subprime flu?" the Finance Times headlined its Aug. 10 coverage of the Aug. 9 market massacre, adding that "there's all sorts of rumors swirling around the market about who will be next into the lifeboat. It looks like it's going to be a hot, sweaty summer for some."

One London fund manager told The New York Times that the European Central Bank's hefty injection into the banking system on Aug. 9 "ignited a fear that there is something really bad going on that the markets don't yet know about." Trading in mortgage-related securities "has seized up, and trading in Collaterized Debt Obligations (CDOs), has become a standoff," said one fund manager. Reflecting its own panic, the Times lamented that the attitude of some investors in CDOs seems to be, "I am dancing here. Don't bother me about this iceberg we have hit."