Last week, I found myself thinking about how much the City has changed last June: I’d just started the “City Girl” column, layoffs were minimal, the parties were plentiful, and an earthquake was about to shatter the City of London.

I suppose that some of us saw it coming. But most didn’t. Not because we couldn’t figure it out, but because we didn’t want to. Some of my colleagues now brag that they shorted the subprime market, and look to take home millions. It strikes me as capitalizing on someone else’s misfortune, but pragmatically, these guys had shown that it’s the only way to ensure that your bonus - and your job - remains intact in the City is to adapt like a chameleon to market conditions, without concern for ethical sentiments.

So has the City really changed its ways since last year? Politicians are making a fuss over reforming our system nowadays, but I’m skeptical. Crimes high and low – especially insider trading – will almost certainly continue regardless of any new laws. I was reminded of our ethical purgatory last week as I heard my client call his wife on his mobile and tell her to sell the shares in “Company X,” then a couple hours later, some financial newscast reported the dour second quarter earnings of “Company X.” How convenient.

The supreme irony of being bombarded by financial newscasts everyday, squawked from flat-screen TV’s suspended from the ceiling every thirty feet or so, is that by the time it reached our ears from the bubbling mouths of one of CNBC’s “Money Honeys,” it is about as useful for trading as leeches are for curing hypertension.

There are simply too many people prepared in disseminating non-public, price sensitive information. From corporate earnings releases to non-farm payroll figures, the incentive for some little guy to take some bribe in exchange for releasing this information is virtually irresistible. This means that insider trading is probably happening all the time. Think about it: if you are a government employee, maybe earning £30,000 per year, and some slick fund manager comes along and offers to pay you £20,000 if you leak the inflation numbers early… what would you say? Pretty good money for 5 minutes work.

Moreover, the average company merger takes months of preparation by investment bankers, accountants, lawyers, secretaries, etc. before the actual announcement. So by the time it’s reached mainstream news, it’s not “news” at all. Until society becomes monitored in a kind of Orwellian “1984” scale, where mobile phones, restaurants and intimate conversations are all recorded, I don’t see any stop to the naughtiness.

The Square Mile may have changed on the surface since last year, but it’s just a matter of time before the City chameleon will show his true colors.