The opposite of real is fake and, after this tumultuous year, fake is how many now see the counterpart of the “real” economy, finance. Finance, however, for all the abuses and excesses, is not inferior to “real companies that make things”. A successful economy needs both.

Subprime mortgages, monoline insurers, collateralised debt obligations, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, bail-outs for everyone from AIG to the Royal Bank of Scotland and one Bernard Madoff all tell us that financial regulation has not been working. Indeed finance is riddled, as it always has been, with gamblers using other people’s money, chancers taking risks but calling it genius, and worthy people following the crowd into collective insanity. Everyone is paying the price and regulation must be rethought.