Credit Squeeze Tightens Grip

Round two of 2007's credit crisis has twice the sting.

The Federal Reserve's reassurance Monday morning that it would shore up liquidity in the financial system as banks face their year-end crunch did little to thwart the brewing seizure in the credit markets.

Instead, the Fed stoked more fear and led traders to compare the current market environment to the anxious days and months in 1999 leading up to the turn of the calendar to the new millennium. ...