We have central banks vigorously printing money and keeping rates low in an attempt to head off the Japan scenario. The side-effects are impossible to predict. Mr Smith says that if the new Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, backs stimulus with even greater gusto, and shuns “creative destruction”, we could, if very lucky, see an accelerated version of the Japan scenario. But he added: “It may get us to the final Japan scenario without the 20 years of Japan. But we could end up with stagflation – the worst of all.”