When the history of this financial crisis comes to be written, the name Goldman Sachs will run through it as if through a stick of rock. Which is why it is fitting that the US investment bank is turning full circle and its shares have just fallen below the price at which they were first floated nearly 10 years ago.

Shares in Goldman Sachs traded down 10% this morning to as low as $49 - dropping below their issue price of $53 when Goldman Sachs went public in May 1999 - as the rout on Wall Street continued. This is a humiliating 80% drop from their highs of October last year. Since the beginning of last week, Goldman Sachs shares have plunged 37%.