The Cash Room of the US Treasury, with its marbled walls, faux columns and giant chandeliers, was an oddly appropriate place to bury free market capitalism.

For a few minutes all was still, apart from the buzz of the camera crews lined up to film the funeral. The podium stood empty, flanked with two giant flags. Behind it an open door revealed six more flags, as if an abundance of stars and stripes would reassure a troubled nation that the partial nationalisation of America’s banking system was indeed a truly patriotic act.