Then came the credit crunch.
A crunch in the gravel, and someone rounded the VAT.
Policymakers are now scrambling to forestall a crunch.
And if you think the credit crunch is bad, then just wait for the impending 'climate crunch'.
The credit crunch almost plunged the world into depression.
Squirrels added staccato crunch notes with their arced leaps.
All this indicates that the credit crunch is going up-market.
The credit crunch, though, put most of those firms out of business.
Central Banks that rely on the credit crunch to tame rising prices may regret it.
Then came the credit crunch and some carry trades broke down spectacularly.
Now, the ravages of the credit crunch have Western Banks exiting their investments with unseemly haste.
Option 3 If you're really in a crunch for time, forego the lemons and the baking soda.
Our applications take in massive amounts of information and crunch it with the power of the microprocessor.
The credit crunch, weakening economic conditions and tighter visa rules add up to a terrible confluence of bad news .
The lesson of the credit crunch is that pinning the blame on any one participant may be fruitless.
The credit crunch had been rumbling on for more than a year but Lehman Brothers' collapse in September was to have a catastrophic impact on confidence.
Second, culpability in the credit crunch of 2008 was broadly apportioned among indulgent lenders, lax regulators, greedy borrowers and supine politicians.
On the one hand, the credit crunch resulting from the worldwide financial turmoil of the past few months seems bound to brake the economy next year.
Perhaps, as the article said, she and Jon were in one of those classic crunch times, when the honeymoon period (six months max) is over.
In October, the BBC Business website reported how as the credit crunch spread feelings of fear and powerlessness, some are turning to humour as the only escape.
This helps to explain why demand for places is up this year, even as falling house prices make people feel poorer and the credit crunch makes student loans pricier.
You may be a valued employee but if your skills and contributions don't accelerate over the years, when crunch time arrives, you may find yourself out of a job.
The infusion of Warren Buffett's money, and the backing of his reputation, means that Goldman has so far escaped the fate of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers during the recent credit crunch.
The Shard, for example, was put on hold in 2007 after the first tremors of the credit crunch; work only restarted after an infusion of private money from a Qatari consortium in 2008.
Then, rather unimaginatively, I add "razzle-dazzle-pizzazz musical great antidote to misery-gloom-doom of credit crunch" before, thankfully for the reader, I am diverted by the whisper "Ciao! Plume!"
