Was Barclays the problem, or was it the business model?

WHEN the world applauds your obituary, as it has the death of Barclays Plc’s global ambitions, it seems you have been doing something wrong.

Barclays’ shares rallied 7.69% on Thursday after the bank announced a sweeping restructuring, the central planks of which are the creation of a bad bank to house impaired assets and, more importantly, huge cut-backs in investment banking.