And it was Bear that brought the first serious reminder, after years of excess, of Walter Bagehot's dictum that if you have to prove you are worthy of credit, your credit is already gone.

也正是贝尔公司首先使人们在多年的放纵之后，深刻地记起了沃尔特•白高特的格言——如果你到了不得不证明你是可信赖的时候，那么信任已经离你而去。

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Walter Bagehot's dictum needed updating when the crisis of confidence affected entire markets rather than single banks.

ECONOMIST: A collaboration over the credit crisis