It is not often that a judgment from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans provokes outrage in the pages of the Financial Times. But that is what happened last month.

A ruling in favour of the National Association of Private Fund Managers and co-plaintiffs against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, noted Gillian Tett, whose book Fool’s Gold was one of the more perceptive analyses of the global financial crisis, “sparked jubilation among many financiers and dismay from progressive and consumer protection groups”.