As a recent World Bank report makes clear, hard times accentuate the importance of kith and kin. Nowhere is this more true than in developing countries, where automatic stabilisers are weak and vulnerability is high. Support from friends and family abroad is more constant than fragile states and footloose businesses.

In the boom years, development finance was chiefly about foreign investment and foreign aid. In 2007 capital flows to developing countries amounted to $1,200bn. That source of money is now drying up. Over the next year capital flows to developing countries are expec­t­ed to collapse, from $707bn to $363bn.