There was something heart-warming about this week's news that US bankers are resuming their carefree habits from the days of the credit boom. In lending to private equity, it seems, they are once more issuing so called covenant-lite and payment-in-kind loans, whereby borrowers are freed from irksome conditions and can pay their annual interest by simply borrowing more.

All this at a time when companies acquired by private equity last time round are sliding into default in record numbers. To paraphrase the satirist Tom Lehrer, it makes a fellow proud to be a banker.

The wider theme here is one of business as usual. Think only of bonuses, where bankers seem honestly perplexed by the notion that they should accept less because of a few unfortunate incidents now best forgotten.