These are tough times for bankers. It takes a lot of determination to hang on in the financial business, after all the castigation in the public sphere ever since the American property bubble burst. Who, after all, likes to be decried as the personification of evil? Of greed? Of ignorance? Of irresponsibility? In the course of the dramatic financial meltdown, a tsunami of distrust and disenchantment has washed over bankers and free markets, financial or other. Politicians have swiftly taken advantage of their sudden glory as the saviours of the world. Public opinion has followed suit.