Whatever else he has done in life, Jeffrey Skilling, Enron’s former chief executive, deserves a minor credit for injecting some fizz into one of Wall Street’s interminable conference calls. In April 2001, eight months before the company’s collapse, he was being pressed by a fund manager to provide more information on how Enron made money. “You’re the only financial institution that cannot produce a balance sheet or cashflow statement with their earnings,” complained the questioner.

A frazzled Skilling famously snapped - quite audibly. “Well, you’re - you - well, uh, thank you very much,” he said. “We appreciate it... asshole.”