Phil Angelides resisted actually breaking into song today, thank goodness, but the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission did unveil the official anthem of the world economic collapse.

Fed up with the parade of executives saying that there was simply no way they could have seen the coming housing collapse and market meltdown, he has taken to reciting Don McLean lyrics.

There were plenty of people calling the house price rises of the Noughties a bubble waiting to burst, and economists including Nouriel Roubini predicting the wider fallout, Mr Angelides gently pointed out to the chief executive of Moody's, the credit rating agency whose optimism on housing led it to say that billions of mortgage derivatives were safe as, er, houses.

And then he recited the chorus from Can't Blame The Wreck On The Train:
 

When the gates are all down, and the signals are flashing, and the whistle is screaming in vain,
And you stay on the tracks, ignoring the facts, well you can’t blame the wreck on the train.
Man, you gotta quit blaming that train.
 

All together now....