We are now three years into the granddaddy of all financial crises, yet it has still not yet been given a name. Other crashes and catastrophes have a handy handle – the Russian debt crisis or dotcom bubble – but what should we call this one.

When it started in August 2007 it was the credit crunch or sub-prime crisis, but the crisis has widened since then into full global recession, stock market crash (and recovery), banking collapse and sovereign debt disasters. There may be sub-situations with recognisable names such as the Greek Crisis or the Dubai Debt Crisis, but there is no name for the whole associated debacle.

The United States has set up a commission to look at the three-years that have shaken the economic world and all it can dream up for a title is the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Yet, other crises have names that allow people to date them precisely. Their names are a shorthand for the complex serious of events leading to the crash or the ensuing consequences. The Secondary Banking Crisis of 1973/74, for instance; the Tequila Crisis of 1994; the 1929 Wall Street Crash; Black Wednesday of 1992 or Black Monday of 1987. In recent years, the phrases LTCM, Russian Debt, Asian Crisis or Dotcom Boom instantly identify the events and time, just as 9/11 does.

Even terms such as “Barber Boom” or “Lawson Blip” immediately tie economic conditions to the British politicians blamed for them. Or geographical tags such as Plaza Agreement or Louvre Accord or Bretton Woods summate whole complicated concepts into just a couple of words. But the current events have no moniker, despite their magnitude.

That is not because they are still current however. Many of those other terms where applied to the events as they unfolded. The dotcom boom was freely referred to as shares shot up: when the bubble burst it was simply renamed the dotcom crash.

Military conflicts get given names too, like the War of the Roses, the Hundred Years War, Waterloo, the Battle of Hastings or Great War. Such terms serve a useful purpose, just as they do in the financial world.

It is surprising that the crisis that started on 8 August 2007 has not yet been named. There are landmarks such as Lehman of Northern Rock, but nothing for the whole devastated vista. Perhaps it is too great for a single term that encompasses all its aspects – though the Depression captured the 1930s in one word. Surely someone has a good word for what we have all been through.

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