A week in which the artist Damien Hirst sold a “Golden Calf” for several million pounds, while one of the world’s largest banks was collapsing, is an apt time to reflect on our world’s curious economic system.

In the Bible, the story goes that while Moses was busy up on Mount Sinai collecting the Ten Commandments, the escaped slaves he had left at the base of the mountain smelted a great pagan sculpture of a golden calf. When Moses came back he smashed his stone tablets in anger.