So, what do all the $12.7bn (€9.8bn, £8.7bn), and counting, in first-quarter profits from what used to be known as Wall Street add up to? Have the past two years been one giant head fake, despite what we have been led to believe? Is the global meltdown we have been subsidising with trillions of taxpayer dollars over? Is the investment bank back?

Not so fast. While global banking activity has picked up considerably since the financial ice age that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers – the nadir was September 29, the day the US Congress failed to pass the first version of the troubled asset relief programme and the market plunged 778 points – the thaw has been aided and abetted by some very clever schemes.