It now seems so genteel. In the old days, the spouses of new Goldman Sachs partners were brought in for an orientation day about the firm. That included the odd quiet word about how to avoid the financial pitfalls of their new status – with the obvious temptation of ostentatious binge spending in the good years.

Today’s financial masters of the universe appear to take a somewhat blunter approach to spouse control. A growing number of hedge fund managers who hit the big time are going straight to their lawyers to try to secure protection in the form of a “postnup” agreement. They have an obvious propensity towards hedging out massive downside risks. They also have a few vaguely reasonable excuses for trying to do a postnup deal.