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The masters seem to think they can take back control of the universe, in that Goldman Sachs is out of US government hock and can pay whatever bonuses it wants.

Not so fast, says Britain's Peter Mandelson. We've got an international agreement to curb bank bonus excess. He's saying that banks that pay with reckless greed (or what some bankers call 'a market rate') can be required by regulators to hold much larger capital deposits.

So while thumbing its nose at public opinion, Goldman Sachs super-brainy financial whizzes are giving the political agreement its first big test. Will the US regulators step in with Goldman?

In other countries, banks are desperate to get out from under the heel of government ownership and at least partial controls.

Consider the argument from Royal Bank of Scotland, for instance. It says it has to pay its best financiers the market rate, even if it has been bailed out with huge amounts of UK government money and is 70% publicly owned.

If that's the case, then the market rate set by Goldman Sachs has a direct impact on the pay bill at Gogarburn headquarters and elsewhere. So we all pay for the consequences of the New York bank's bonus bonanza.

Excess profit

But look at it another way. One reason given today for the astonishingly high pay that bankers expect is that there are so few people capable of doing what they do.

The free market economic theory which they espouse would also suggest that excess profit is a sign of a dysfunctional market. It showed signs of monopolistic behaviour before the crash, and with a lot of competition removed by collapse and merger, that is going to get even more concentrated.

So if the market lacks competition, it's up to government and regulators to make the market function better, to ensure the barriers to entry in the market-place are reduced, so that bankers don't operate as a small, cosy and extremely lucrative global cartel.

So that's another argument for the banks to come under much more regulatory pressure.

Goldman Sachs' largesse to its employees may improve Krug sales for a weekend. But it looks even more short-sighted than the bonus culture was before last year's crash, if it gives governments and regulators that golden opportunity and a new wave of public anger with which to flex their muscles.