We greet our neighbours with the hope that they will experience a good morning, a reflection of the days when we lived by agriculture. John Kenneth Galbraith proposed that the equivalent courtesy in the new industrial state was “low price”. Mostly, falling prices are good news. Better news if you are a buyer than if you are a seller. But if you are a seller in a competitive market, lower prices are usually a consequence of falling costs and the lower price expands the market. In computers and consumer electronics, prices have been falling year by year for decades while sales and profits of most producers have steadily increased. Good news all round.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, has argued that asset markets are no different. He pokes fun at volatile Mr Market, who from time to time is willing to sell him goods at prices that are too low. But Mr Buffett’s is a minority view. Financial markets are spooked by the threat of lower house prices and everyone on CNBC is gloomy when the screen is splashed with red.