In a touching display that its freedom is (almost) not for sale, Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, pleased markets this week with a plan to exit the US troubled asset relief programme. The government should take note, and be worried.

Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s CEO, says the bank escaped the subprime mortgage storm with less damage than its competitors. When the wholesale funding markets on which it depended suddenly froze last autumn, Goldman was naturally not above taking money where it could find it. With little ceremony, it converted itself into a bank holding company to be eligible for the Tarp then being put together by the US Treasury.