Bankers - what do they know?

We're all caught up in writing acres of coverage so just time for one quick reflection on the "show trial" of bankers in front of the Commons Treasury committee.

I remember when the Royal Bank of Scotland announced that they had bought the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 and thinking, I suppose like everyone else, along the lines of : "Why have RBS bought a bank with a recession just around the corner? Do they know something about the gathering storm that we don't?"

Now we know from the evidence of Sir Fred Goodwin and his High Chaperal chairman Sir Tom McKillop that the £10 billion deal was a "mistake", "a big mistake", and "a bad decision" in their words. That's cleared that up - they don't know any better than us.