Governments usually promise not to react precipitately to financial crises. But you can virtually guarantee that even as they sign their pledge, they are also dusting off sketchy blueprints for all sorts of regulatory intervention to prevent a repeat of politically embarrassing market meltdowns.

That is why it comes as no surprise to learn Gordon Brown and George W. Bush want to set up a flotilla of transatlantic working groups on financial markets, while Alistair Darling, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), wishes to build a university’s worth of international supervisory “colleges”, one for each international bank, insurer or securities house.