The action taken in the past year by central banks and governments across the world in response to turmoil in international financial markets has often been likened to that of Dad’s Army character Corporal Jones, whose counterproductive attempts to reassure himself and his home guard comrades in times of crisis was to run around frantically, shouting “Don’t panic!”

However, the popular reaction to the credit crunch and rising fuel and food prices also brings to mind another member of the platoon, dour Scottish undertaker Private Frazer, whose normal response to a crisis was to lament, “We’re doomed, doomed!” But are we really facing economic doom or merely experiencing tougher conditions than we’ve been used to of late?