At $68 per barrel, oil has more than doubled in price since December. Gold is again touching $1,000 per ounce. The Cassandras of the economic commentariat warn that the monster of high energy prices will munch green shoots in the bud, but worry is misplaced. The current price movements signal not a repeat of last year’s anomalies, but a return to normality.

Commodities of all stripes have taken part in the latest rally. Aside from oil and gold, spot prices of other precious metals, of industrial metals such as copper and aluminium, and of agricultural commodities, have all gone up.