The rules have changed. Those who fondly imagine that success in banking can remain an uninterrupted path to untold riches should think again. The best and the brightest from the nation's universities would be well advised to look elsewhere.
To quote George Osborne, the Conservative shadow chancellor, the days have gone when bankers could routinely pay themselves 20 times more than heart surgeons. Or as Lord Mandelson, the Labour business secretary, has put it, Britain has had its fill of financial engineering. The economy now would benefit from some real engineering.
For all the heat being generated by the present controversy, bonuses are just one part of the story. Behind the (justified) furore about payouts for failure lies a more profound question. What sort of banks do we want to emerge from the wreckage of the financial system?