In the movie Thank You For Smoking there is a great scene in which a slick lobbyist for big tobacco played by Aaron Eckhart teaches his son how to argue. You don’t have to prove that you’re right, he says. You just have to prove that the other guy is wrong.

In the real world, his counterparts in the banking industry have taken this advice to heart in their intense and well-funded lobbying campaigns against regulatory reform over the past five years.