We're entering the next stage of the credit crisis and one which is potentially more troubling than what we've already seen over the past year (absent some policy reactions by the central banks and governments worldwide). The crisis was initiated by an intense run-up in leverage by financial institutions and investors worldwide investing in increasingly risky assets such as subprime mortgages - and then came the realization that leverage could hurt. The deleveraging process started to intensify last year about this time. The easy part of that process is nearly complete. Now is the time for the really hard ...