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to bonuses. Having such a variable cost base makes it easier to reduce expenses without cutting jobs. Goldman Sachs’s pay pot dropped by 35% in the first quarter, for example, compared with the same period in the previous fiscal year.

Other banks have fewer options. Octavio Marenzi, the boss of Celent, a consultancy, says that American commercial banks are aiming to cut their costs by around five percentage points in total. Since roughly half their expenses are tied to borrowing costs, which they cannot control, that translates into an 8-10% fall in non-interest operating costs, of which salaries are a big part. Celent forecasts that up to 200,000 jobs could go in American banks over the next two years.

All this blood-letting may reassure shareholders. Whether it will do them much good in the longer term is more doubtful. Swingeing cuts tend to slice into muscle as well as fat, hurting the bits of the bank that can make money. According to Mr Marenzi, banks that announce cost-cutting are more likely to see their expense ratios worsen than those that do not. The idea of jobless bankers may gladden some souls; the brain should reserve judgment.