This will be the year of government influence over the economy. So, for one, says President-elect Barack Obama, who is preparing a big stimulus package to be implemented shortly after his inauguration later this month.

Indeed, so too does Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, who travels the world repeating its view that “fiscal stimulus is now essential to restore global growth”. The leaders of the Group of 20 industrialised and developing nations also agree. They pledged in November to “work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world’s financial systems”.