Business Secretary Vince Cable has launched a searing attack on the City "spivs and gamblers" who crippled the British economy.
In a rousing speech to round off the first Liberal Democrat conference since they entered coalition, Mr Cable condemned the "outrageous" scale of bank bonuses after the credit crunch.
But he also attempted to calm business concerns over his damning critique of capitalist excess and threats to legislate against big payouts, insisting he was not seeking "retribution".
The address in Liverpool was littered with crowd-pleasing rhetoric to counter activists' anxiety over the compromises made to govern with David Cameron.
In abrasive remarks that contrasted with leader Nick Clegg's more emollient tone on Monday, Mr Cable admitted it was "not much fun" being in bed with the Conservatives.
But he said it was "necessary for our country that our parties work together at a time of financial crisis".
He said the Lib Dems were "punching above our weight" in the coalition, stressing that the Tories had been forced to accept changes to income tax and capital gains as well as dropping key policies such as cutting inheritance tax.
Mr Cable was forced to deny he was espousing "Marxism" last night after business leaders criticised pre-released extracts from his speech which lambasted capitalist excess.
But the final version of the address kept the most controversial passages in which he described markets as "often irrational or rigged".
Announcing a wide-ranging review into the "murky world of corporate behaviour", including takeovers and over-generous incentives for executives, Mr Cable said: "Why should good companies be destroyed by short-term investors looking for a speculative killing, while their accomplices in the City make fat fees?
"Why do directors sometimes forget their wider duties when a cheque is waved before them?
"Capitalism takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can, as Adam Smith explained over 200 years ago."
Mr Cable conceded that deep cuts to public spending were "bound to hurt", saying "strong disinfectant stings".
But he laid the blame for the situation firmly on the previous government, which left the UK "exceptionally vulnerable and damaged".
Labour had now taken the "easy option of deficit denial", and were "ranting with synthetic rage", Mr Cable said.
"A proper debate is impossible with people who start from the infantile proposition that there isn't a problem; and simply hark back to a failed world of 'business as usual'," he added.
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