In financial centres around the world this is the time of year to show goodwill. Not "goodwill to all men " of course but to those workers - both men and women - who have earned it.

As the million-dollar bonuses are handed out, however, quite a few of the rest of mankind can feel left in the cold. Bus drivers, nurses, teachers, social workers and others often look aghast at year-end City of London remuneration that can equate a single year of an investment banker's toil to 2,000 years of their own labour. For example, a carpenter born in the Middle East would need to have worked for two millenniums (without interest) to amass the $50m that one modern City "rainmaker " has just collected.