After another bleak week on the markets when the power of policy-makers to do much about it was summed up in the US headline: "Bush talks, Wall Street tanks", politicians want to be seen to be doing and saying something relevant. Hence the fashionable consensus on both sides of the Atlantic that the problem lies in the credibility of companies and their accounts.

Policy-makers are running around telling anyone who will listen about the importance of tackling fraudsters, restoring faith in the integrity of annual statements, improving corporate governance and generally ensuring that the world's most carnivorous entrepreneurs have the greed drained from their metabolism.