When is a toxic asset not really “toxic”? When it is in the hands of the Wall Street and Washington spin machine, it might seem.

A year ago, when America first realised the horrendous scale of its financial mess, politicians and financiers saw little shame in articulating the word “toxic” in relation to bad assets. But then the best minds in Washington and Wall Street deemed that term too alarmist – and started to use the politically correct word “problem” asset instead.