After several months of struggle, banks were forced to suspend cash payments nationwide, leading to illiquidity, a stock market crash, and a dramatic fall in economic activity.
But until those outbursts of illiquidity are tamed to a greater degree, it seems unlikely that individuals will reverse their long-term trend and return to direct ownership of stocks.
The list of non-US companies with Amps outstanding is getting shorter all the time, and the market is showing worrying signs of illiquidity.
Moreover, experience of illiquidity with other irredeemable instruments - such as subordinated floating rate notes issued by banks in the mid-1980s - should prove cautionary.
The most serious potential effect of a rapid decline in stock prices is the insolvency of a major investment bank due to trading losses or illiquidity of securities inventory and bridge loans.
And markets don't like illiquidity much either.
Resulting illiquidity made an orderly retreat from the market impossible.
"There was extreme illiquidity after the (S&P 500 contract) moved 10 points" below the previous day's close, said Mr. Melamed.
But it represents a punt on the recovery of the UK's Mittelstand companies, without the illiquidity of investing in large funds. This could be good news, not just for 3i's founding shareholders.