What people are really objecting to is two-fold: they object to market virtues being assigned moral worth (“greed is good”); and they object to those operating in markets believing that personal morality is irrelevant. Both make sense. Brown wants bankers to rediscover the value of the craftsman. And economists are beginning to question why financiers should be different from, say, doctors — who are trained to care not only for monetary results but also for a professional code that goes beyond that. After all, a profession which promises quick rewards by risking other people’s money and no social strings attached isn’t likely to get people who strike others as particularly moral individuals.

Sixty years ago, morality and economics mixed, and gave the world the welfare-state consensus. Forty years ago, baby boomers questioned the moral worth of being a life-long company man. Twenty years ago, Thatcher built the City. Today, Brown’s demolishing it. Perhaps, every twenty years we’ve got to look at market structures again — and bring them into line with what society demands.

mihir.sharma@expressindia.com