As fear tears through financial markets greed has never been so disreputable. In the UK, the US and globally the staggering cost of financial sector bail-outs to governments worldwide has caused even the most hard line Ayn Rand-quoting neo-conservatives to question the wisdom of banking and hedge fund incentives.

Banks were clearly incentivised to lend at ever increasing volumes in the knowledge they would receive bonuses on the strength of the amount of profit they had made from fees. The quality of the loans did not really matter, as they were made on the assumption of being able to syndicate debt into an ever-growing debt market and pay-packets would be generated from the fees. Hedge fund executives have an even more eye-watering model. Their carried interest is generated from paper returns, if they doubled their investors' capital one-quarter, a manager could buy a house near to work in Mayfair.