Few feelings are more superficially comforting than finding proof that the rest of the world is mad while you have been right all along. Such is the sentiment that seems to be suffusing many politicians in mainland Europe after the implosion of Anglo-American capitalism.

Having endured endless lectures about the need to shred their over-regulated economies and embrace free markets, many European politicians believe their stubborn defence of the social market economy has been justified. Talk of market regulation and state intervention now trips off their tongues as enthusiastically as it sticks in the throats of their US counterparts.