Bombed-out bank shares are a failure of modern capitalism

When I read news of a fresh strategic plan for Barclays, I seem to hear a ghostly rustling from the corner cupboard in the living room. Could it be a forlorn protest from the dusty bundle of share certificates that are the last vestiges of my late father’s lifelong service to Barclays from junior clerk to deputy chairman? They were a modest farewell reward – 40 years ago, in the era before mega-bonuses for senior executives – that might once have been swapped for a country cottage but today would barely yield enough to pay for his upcoming centenary dinner.

Even the Qatari sheikhs have sold down their Barclays holdings in despair. But out of misplaced loyalty and sentiment, our family has hung on, watching the shares languish at less than a quarter of their pre-2008 price and, in recent times, half the bank’s net asset value. So what relief does chief executive C.S.