It's funny, but I don't remember Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, or any of the heads of the major financial institutions (including JPMorgan) saying that the financial world was on the brink of disaster when Bear Stearns was careening towards belly-up-ville.

Financial markets were giving off that message, of course, but the people who really knew what was going on were tight-lipped or were reassuring everyone that everything was under control.

Now, though, with equity traders and other lost souls believing that the worst is over (which it isn't), you have people willing to let down their guard with admissions like those in the following report from Thomson Financial, "International Financial System Was Close to the Brink - Credit Suisse Ex-CEO."

The international financial system was close to the brink in March when joint action by the U.S. Federal Reserve and JP Morgan Chase & Co. avoided the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse Group's ex-CEO Oswald Gruebel said.

The breakdown of the comparatively small investment bank would have triggered a global run on other financial institutions around the world and the situation would have spiraled out of control, he said in an interview with Swiss Sunday newspaper SonntagsBlick.

Gruebel, chief executive of Switzerland's second largest bank from 2004 to 2007, said that central banks fortunately realized that they had to de facto take over the interbanking market.

'We've narrowly escaped a system collapse. This has never happened before,' Gruebel said.

Nevertheless, the impact of the financial market crisis will still be felt over the coming years as banks tighten credit, which will in turn substantially limit economic growth, he said.

My guess is, authorities won't go after those who downplayed the extent of the crisis that was unfolding weeks ago, even though at least some of them were guilty of making misleading statements and market manipulation. What do you think?