I once hitched a ride on a Gulfstream jet (purely for research purposes, obviously) and enjoyed the experience of being flown in a leather-trimmed cabin at nearly 50,000ft, escaping the turbulence buffeting the commercial aircraft far below. It felt as if I had joined the elite group that lives by different rules to ordinary folk.

That too-brief flight in a NetJets aircraft is the only psychological explanation I can think of for the ethical blind spot of David Sokol, NetJets’ chairman, who resigned from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway last week after mixing up his own investments with those of his employer. Mr Sokol still does not appear to think he did anything wrong, which makes me think he has been flying too high.

Mr Sokol is not the only one to blame for his purchase of Lubrizol shares before Berkshire Hathaway bought the chemicals company last month, netting him a $3m personal gain. Mr Buffett used to own a jet called The Indefensible (although he travels on NetJets these days) and that is an apt description of Berkshire’s top-level corporate governance. Mr Sokol’s blunder ought to make 80-year-old Mr Buffett address his own failure.