Sometimes boldness is caution. The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee has, in extreme circumstances, adopted the “risk management” approach followed by Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve. It was right to do so.

In my column of last Friday (“What the British authorities should try now”) I recommended a cut of two full percentage points. The MPC has not gone quite that far. But it is to be congratulated for coming as far as it has, with its one and a half percentage point cut bringing rates down to 3 per cent, their lowest since 1955.