Despite the continuing turmoil, many bankers, financiers and corporate executives, on both sides of the pond, have returned to their gilded lives as if nothing had happened. As a result, the very richest in the UK have been receiving an ever larger share of a shrinking economic cake, one that is today still close to 5 per cent smaller than in 2007. As a result, the pay gap between executives and their staff has continued to widen, despite the persistence of the economic crisis.