What do many financial sector spokesmen and some of the media have in common? A drive to talk the UK – and, for all they care, the world economy – into a depression. At the beginning of the year I wrote an article entitled “High time for all of us to buck up”. It is necessary to reiterate this theme.

To begin with, the financial sector is not the whole of the economy. Financial services account for about 12 per cent of UK gross national product. The “wholesale” sector – from which the current crunch originated – contributes just under 4 per cent, although more than that of any other European Union country except Luxembourg. Because the present slowdown originated in that sector it does not mean that recovery must be based entirely on it.