It was only a decade or two ago that global economic governance was relatively simple. The US told the G7 advanced economies what to think, the G7 told the IMF and other multilateral agencies what to do, and that was the end of the matter.

The rise of China and the global financial crisis exploded the idea that the US and G7 had sufficient legitimacy and weight to keep the show on the road — and that was before the arrival of Donald Trump and his deep aversion to multilateralism. The G7 was supplanted by the G20, which made solid achievements in the field of financial regulation but had much less impact on trade or the tension over currencies that dominated the post-crisis years.

With its main prop removed, the state of international co-operation is probably at its worst since the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system in the 1970s, or even longer. No new hegemon is likely to arise soon that can fill the gap so casually vacated by the US. It is not even clear that America’s will to lead the global trading and financial system will return when Mr Trump has departed the White House.