Our faltering economy - Discipline may restore our fortunes

THIS was not in the script; we thought recession was like St Patrick and his snakes. Gone, banished, never again to trouble us even if the Celtic Tiger had fled to pastures new.

Even if house prices were falling like trees along the Amazon and even if we suddenly and dramatically cut back on consumer spending.

Received wisdom was that after the oil crises of 30 years ago we had all hard-wired the lesson that inflation must be controlled. Independent central banks used interest rates to keep the supply of money in check thereby keeping the beast in its lair. The result might have been occasionally grim but the pay off was a stable economy and the potential that offered.