When the financial crisis hit, across the world there were two main reactions. First, regulate industry more “to prevent this sort of thing happening again” and, secondly, attempts to stimulate the economy by providing large amounts of taxpayers’ or borrowed money to shore up vulnerable industries, normally by funding projects that no-one would fund even when the economy was strong.

These reactions have not proved successful. Industry has struggled under the weight of regulation, which was not light to begin with (the so-called deregulatory administration of George W. Bush actually increased regulation) and the vast increase in public spending has led to a second, larger financial crisis in the shape of public sector debt problems across the world.