A more familiar trajectory takes politicians from hubris to nemesis. Think Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair or George W. Bush. Gordon Brown has somehow reversed the sequence. In a few short weeks Britain’s prime minister has travelled from apparent nemesis to visible hubris.

You can see why. Commentators have been buying Browns with the enthusiasm that investment bankers once reserved for subprime mortgages and credit default swaps. Paul Krugman, the Nobel laureate, has mused publicly as to whether history might one day cast Mr Brown as the saviour of the global financial system.