Along with loft-laggers and unscrupulous bankers, the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston is one of the few who seems to be doing well out of the so-called credit crunch.

The man’s on television so much, he makes Jonathan Ross look like a screen-shy recluse.

Peston’s overtime alone during these times of financial turmoil must be bankrupting the BBC. And I’m sure he’ll be the first with the news when that happens.

While he clearly knows his stuff – hence the punishing screen schedule – Peston’s delivery style is something of an acquired taste.

He speaks like a cross between Alan Whicker and a man being randomly kicked in the shins, raising his voice and dragging out words in unpredictable places.

I know of at least one person who has been so driven to distraction by Peston’s weird intonation that he felt moved to write a letter of complaint to the BBC. And, to be fair, he got a reply (although, sadly, not from the corporation’s banking crisis guru himself).

Peston is apparently well aware of his occasionally grating style and receives regular voice training. It would be intriguing to go behind the scenes and see how they prepare him for his slots on news programmes.

Is there a simple instruction before he goes on (“try not to sound like a malfunctioning robot”), or is there someone off screen making threatening throat-slashing gestures every time his voice veers off?

There is something oddly compelling about Peston that makes you want to at least try to understand what he’s talking about. And for all his vocal ticks, he manages to resist the urge to wave his arms about like a demented bookie, as many TV news reporters feel the need to do. It’s probably just as well; combined with that voice, he would come across as being genuinely insane.

Like him or not, Peston’s going to be a permanent fixture in our homes for the next few months, especially in the light of this week’s government rescue package for the banks.

The reaction to our own “bailout” has been far more restrained than in the USA, where it was richly entertaining to watch all those hand-wringing free-market evangelists despair that their once-proud nation had effectively resorted to “Carrmunism”.

The US turning communist and the BBC’s business editor becoming the most famous person in the country? We live in interesting times.