Adair Turner's move today to back a global tax on bonuses and urge consideration of a tax on financial transactions will grab the headlines.
Sceptics will say that he is trying to align himself with the likely incoming chancellor George Osborne (and showing more loyalty to him than either the City or the regulatory body he chairs).
Rarely has one man generated some much instant rage among City types as Turner did this morning. This from commentator Howard Wheeldon: 'Quite honestly I am appalled, disgusted, ashamed and hugely embarrassed that I should have lived to see someone supposed to be held in high esteem and that who already commands a senior and crucially important position as effective head of the UK regulatory regime making such damaging and damning remarks.'
So just to be clear Howard, you're not in favour? The British Bankers’ Association chief executive Angela Knight was interviewed with me on the BBC World Service and she did not vent any anger. Indeed, her general tone was one of disbelief: 'Surely you are all misunderstanding; Adair Turner would not say such a thing.'
The knee-jerk response is one of self preservation and it is not unreasonable.
But Turner is a man who likes to stretch his intellectual legs under the table. In reality, this is Turner at his best, using his intellectual prowess to survey the broadest possible range of options and challenge orthodoxy.
He is asking the unaskable question in the City:is it really worth it? Up until now the City, government and academia has acknowledged the central point that maintaining the competitiveness of the City of London should be a primary aim for the British economy.
But Turner seems to have reached the view that society is simply paying too much to the financial system in order for it to allocate money across the economy for us.
I suspect this new thinking will not shake off the assumption about the importance of the City. But it should be its wake-up call. He is saying quite clearly. 'You can cost more than your usefulness, you know'.
One thing is for sure, Turner is now engaged on his own intellectual sojourn, which bears no real relationship to the policy of the regulator he still chairs.