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: While financial firms were taking giant punts to give their profits some va-va-voom, their marketing departments were conjuring up phrases to convey the impression that banks and insurers, like diamonds, were forever. Now that the future’s not bright, it is obvious that some were probably the worst corporate slogans in the world. From American International Group, a collapsed insurer (“the strength to be there”), through to Lehman Brothers (“where vision gets built”) and IndyMac, a failed bank (“you can count on us”), boastful institutions snapped, crackled and popped under pressure.

The home of the whoppers is America, but the trend has been connecting people globally. In incredible India, ICICI, despite being the bank of a billion smiles, was led to deny rumours of a run. And pure, natural, unspoilt Iceland has bailed out its third-largest lender, Glitnir, which although fast, smart and thorough, faced a funding crisis.

Yet not all banks failed to do exactly what it said on the tin. Through their slogans, Benelux’s lenders gave an eerie premonition of the massive state rescues to come. Dexia warned that “the short term has no future,” and Fortis asked, “here today, where tomorrow?” Not since Enron invited the world to “ask why” has an interrogative slogan been as prescient.

And consider also the few, the proud, that chose just to do it and openly advertise risks. Countrywide promoted itself as a “lender that actually finds ways to make loans”. (When debtors lost their passion to perform, it was bought for a reassuringly expensive price by Bank of America.) The mortgage agency Fannie Mae, now state-controlled, fully disclosed that “as the American dream grows, so do we,” making clear what would happen if the world lost its faith in America. And no one comes close to Washington Mutual, whose slogan (“Whoo hoo”) should have given investors a clear warning about its risk appetite. Hello Boys! Wasn’t it obvious?