This week has been a bonfire of French vanities. The Société Générale scandal has left the credibility of one of France's most respected banks, its highly regarded chairman, Daniel Bouton, a classic product of the business elite, and the French capitalist system as a whole in ashes.

This seems, at least, the prevailing impression outside France. How could a country that has always denounced the brutal excesses of Wall Street capitalism have fallen prey to what it likes to call