The writer is a financial journalist and author of ‘Surviving the Daily Grind: Bartleby’s Guide to Work’It is now clearer than ever that we have entered a new era of financial and economic policy. In this new period, governments are far less willing to incur the unpopularity of raising taxes or cutting spending to keep their budgets in check.

There could be no better symbol of this change than the sight of a British prime minister, who campaigned for a smaller state, announcing a huge intervention in the energy market to cap prices, at a cost that may reach ￡150bn.

By the same token, western governments adopted a “shock and awe” approach to fiscal policy in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Budget deficits passed 10 per cent of gross domestic product in several countries, including the US and the UK.