When equities were sinking too far, and too fast, authorities all over the world demonised short selling. Now that debt has been driven into the ground, credit default swaps are getting roughed up too. Collin Peterson, chairman of the agriculture committee of the US House of Representatives, has drafted a bill proposing, among other things, that all "naked" CDS contracts - where the participants do not actually own the underlying loan or bond - be banned forthwith , wiping out perhaps 80 per cent of the market.

Such populism is understandable: politicians risk little reputational damage by putting the boot in to bankers. But the proposal is absurd. Yes, CDS fostered complacency. If a bank sold protection to one counterparty at 600 basis points, and bought from another at 400, there were pats on the back all round, regardless of what was happening to the underlying asset - or to either counterparty. But the decisions made in banks' CDS wings were no more heinous than those in the leveraged finance or securitisation desks, or on the remuneration committee.