Are assets cheap yet? It sounds a bit like the rhetorical question asked by Laurence Olivier playing a Nazi dentist in the film Marathon Man, as he tortures Dustin Hoffman’s character with a drill: “Is it safe?” he says.

It has been a year of devastation for capital values. Most stock markets and indices are down by almost half; pension funds are ravaged, hedge funds battered, property in freefall, commodities a wipeout, private equity suffering. I had the small consolation recently of hearing a billionaire say his net worth had fallen by 60 per cent in the past 12 months. Certainly, compared to a year ago, equities, corporate bonds and property are starting to appear tempting – especially when cash yields less than 2 per cent in the bank. But are these apparently giveaway prices a delusion?