Howard Pyle, The Burning of Jamestown, an early-twentieth-century illustration, not an eyewitness view. Public domain.
In August 2007 banks started to doubt one another's mortgage paper, and credit hesitated.
If money is tight, a hesitant bank is a no on the car, the card, or the small-business line.
If you are in the middle, the rate you are offered can jump even if you did nothing wrong.
If you have savings, a money-market fund is supposed to be boring, and boring is about to be tested.
In the summer of 2007, funds tied to mortgage securities froze and banks grew reluctant to lend to each other.
The Federal Reserve began cutting its policy rate in September.
The crisis that people date to 2008 had already started in the plumbing.
Source: Federal Reserve chronology, August and September 2007.