With the benefit of hindsight it is obvious that if shareholders and regulators had engaged properly with bank executives the financial crisis of the past two years could have been averted.

The argument runs that, if shareholders had taken a long-term view of their interests, acting like owners rather than traders, and challenged the banks over the risks they were taking, then the banks would have reined in their lending. Or if only the Financial Services Authority or the Securities and Exchange Commission had told the banks to reduce their reliance on short-term, wholesale financing, then we would not be in the mess we are now.