Adam Curtis' excellent film about Nick Leeson and the Barings Bank collapse exposes some of the problems with banking quite some time ago. It also shows us how our notion, that every digit in every account is being watched closely, is totally out of step with how the big-money-boys deal with our cash deposits. Leeson was allowed to run up losses of UK£400m because he kept telling them that he was in fact making a profit. It was that simple. And their profit margins, although imaginary, were all these people were concerned about. This is also a sad story of one man who made some tragic errors, that he just should not have been allowed to. In the end Leeson's losses doubled overnight to almost UK£1bn, and that effectively bankrupted Barings.