“Capitalism isn’t working,” shouted the banners held aloft by protesters at last week’s London summit of world leaders. Had they prefaced this arresting slogan with “liberal” they might have found themselves not too distant from the presidents and prime ministers around the conference table.

Few would have thought a year or two ago that such a gathering would conclude that it was the state’s role to set caps on bankers’ pay. Perhaps the leaders were taking their cue from Jack Welch, the iconic former head of GE. Mr Welch seems to think the “shareholder value” model of capitalism “the dumbest idea in the world”. I had thought he invented it.