There is curious comfort in the correction in world markets and accompanying prophecies of recession, even as we watch our investments wobble in value and our job prospects deteriorate. Cyclicality, so easy to forget about in the short run, is reasserting its mastery. Existence is so much easier to deal with if it is cyclical, rather than linear and thereby continually exposing us to the shock of the new.

In a cyclical universe the future merely consists of variations on familiar themes from the past, like the food in a works canteen that curries its leftovers. One can expect to see three or four meaty stock market corrections and economic downturns in a lifetime. The current turmoil has the makings of one such milestone for our own generation, rate cuts notwithstanding. That at least is the prediction of my sophisticated econometric model, or “gut instinct” as it is otherwise known.