In the thunderous collapse of General Motors last week, one detail seems to have gone almost unnoticed. The old GM’s US pension fund, with its near-$100bn (£63bn) of liabilities, is being transferred lock, stock and barrel to the new entity. As a direct result, the new GM could be bankrupt again in a very few years.

From a UK perspective, this insouciance seems curious. But the US is somewhat behind the game in grasping the scale of the corporate pensions crisis.