As if ENRON and The Allied Irish Bank were not enough, Madoff, we learn, made off with enough money to feed thousands of children for many years. It was money that could have given hundreds of thousands a decent education. He could have built hospitals too, throwing in a year or two's salary for doctors and nurses for good measure.

No.

The whole point was to make money because that's how the system was supposed to work. Freedom of enterprise was the freedom trumping all others, greed was considered good, trickle-down was bound to happen even if all evidence pointed in the opposite direction, while the market forces were self-regulatory and not be bucked.

These were holy articles of faith we were all expected to believe in. Inquisitors of managerial mumbo-jumbo stalked hospital and university corridors forcing public servants to take part in sadistic games of quality assurance competition and league tables. Altruism and public service were seen as enemies of the state because they were diametrically opposed to the magic of the market.

With the collapse of the US-led world financial system it has become obvious that making money is no more viable an enterprise than practising alchemy. Exponents of both forms of magic appear to believe that something can be made from nothing.

Money, as everyone knows, is first and foremost an abstraction. Even though you may have a banknote or two in your pocket, money has no real value in itself. Your banknotes, literally speaking, aren't worth the paper they're printed on if they can't be used like exchange vouchers to acquire something else.

The only practical purpose of money is to avoid the encumbrance and confusion of bartering. For example, this house is worth how many sheep? This sheep is worth how much of this type of cloth? How much advice of this sort do I need to give you before you give me a pitcher of clean water?