End of Banker Immunity?

Simon Jenkins, columnist for the Guardian:

"There seems no end to the immunity -- moral, political, fiscal and possibly legal -- claimed by the present masters of the universe, the bankers. ... There must surely be a reckoning one day for loss and agony that the credit crunch has inflicted -- and is still inflicting -- on millions of innocent victims. But as we seek out the guilty men, we should know that as long as banking retains its stranglehold on policy, the disaster will continue."
This headline, for a column in the Telegraph by Jeremy Warner, takes the cake: "After Barclays, the Golden Age of Finance Is Dead." (It was still alive only a few days ago? Who knew?) Warner writes:
"Just when you thought bankers could sink no lower in public regard, they’ve done it. News that Barclays has been found guilty of repeatedly falsifying the interbank rate –- sometimes for the personal gain of traders, sometimes to make the bank itself seem more creditworthy than it really was –- tops off another calamitous week in the seemingly never-ending litany of banking misdemeanors.
"Coming hard on the heels of the chaos surrounding an IT breakdown at Royal Bank of Scotland, it is as if bankers are actively out to confirm their reputation for recklessness, incompetence and self-enriching disregard for the interests of customers and the wider economy.
"At a time when the political and regulatory backlash against finance is already at fever pitch, much of it ill-thought out, counterproductive and economically harmful, there could scarcely have been a more spectacular own goal."
And here I thought Occupy Wall Street's criticisms of bankers were tough. Hell hath no fury like a financial columnist scorned.