There has been an increasing disconnection between the real and financial economies in the past few years. The real economy has grown at a brisk pace but nothing like that of the financial economy, which grew even more rapidly – until it imploded.

Formidable financial expansion was a response in part to the dynamism of economic activity and in part to a prolonged period of low interest rates. But there has also been the rise in securitisation and the development of structured investment vehicles, conduits, hedge funds, private equity, leverage loans and the like. These were probably the biggest stimulus to the credit multiplier.