In London, the adventure playground of the global financial system until the financial crisis struck, banks such as Barclays and Nomura are once again energetically hiring and poaching staff. As in New York, trading profits are up and bonuses are back. At government-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland, they are back with a vengeance. Many in Westminster feel the new £9.6m ($16m, €11m) pay package for Stephen Hester, chief executive since November, smacks of the pre-crisis era.

Certainly, the mood among financiers is suddenly more cheery. There is also a growing suspicion on both sides of the Atlantic that bankers, a lethal breed whose activities have pretty much throttled the global economy while causing government deficits to balloon, are going back to business as usual – a frightening prospect for taxpayers everywhere.