Goldman Sachs may be the best investment bank in the world by a substantial margin, but in the past two months it has, uncharacteristically, been dropping catches. We have become so accustomed to Goldman winning every game and outsmarting the opposition, that even the smallest lapse makes headlines.

There has been speculation for some time as to how many hats Goldman can wear at any one time. When the New York Stock Exchange, run by former Goldman partner John Thain, bid for Archipelago, which asked Goldman for advice, and Goldman also owned Spear Leeds Kellogg, which was one of the most powerful influences in NYSE trading, it seemed that Goldman almost had an advisory monopoly.