Plutocrats and politicians, schooled in the values of globalisation and free-market capitalism, operate outside the laws that bind ordinary mortals. Like modern alchemists, they can conjure money out of thin air through quantitative easing and, blessed with the certainty that wealth and power provide, defy apparent logic by asserting that the best way out of the financial crisis is to redeploy some of the policies that created it.
Time will tell what does and doesn't work. However, given some of the evident failures already engineered by the 'best and the brightest', and the blatant instances of corporate misdirection, it is difficult for anyone whose investments have been mauled to see how a prescription that essentially calls for more of the same can be a palliative, never mind a cure.
Alternatives are available. The groundswell of public opinion, evident outside the recent G20 meetings in London, is for change, not 'historic' reassurances that more indebtedness on a vast scale is the best, or only, way forward. Burnt once, many people understandably want to see a clear reordering of priorities, encompassing a new sense of realism and fairness, not semi-frantic attempts to re-erect a flawed economic model on decidedly shaky foundations.
Perhaps capturing the broader pre-summit mood better than his peers, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: '[France] will fight for the moralisation of financial capitalism and for the refoundation of a better regulated capitalism. Let's not wait. Let's put an end to the excesses and abuses.'
At the time, other leaders, beating the drum for worldwide tax cuts and wider fiscal stimulus, may not have appreciated the focus of those remarks. With every passing day, though, the message is sinking in: the best way to emerge from the financial malaise is to reunite economic theory with neglected aspects of moral and political philosophy.
The theme of change at a systemic level resonates strongly with David Lui Yin-tat, non-executive vice-chairman of Schroder Investment Management (Hong Kong). As someone who has managed unit trusts and institutional funds, and sat on many official advisory bodies, Mr Lui has steered a course through 30 years of booms and busts and gained a true insider's view of the finance industry.