Commodity prices are surging and there’s the prospect of demand for some natural resources exceeding supplies for years to come. Some leading investment advisers now say that we’re in the early stages of another “super-cycle.”

Whether inflation proves to be sustainable or not, historic evidence is that in such environments, portfolios of low price-to-earnings ratios outperform, says NTAsset’s Kenneth Ng. The fund is a specialist in small/midsized Southeast Asian and Indian shares. It is confident that its holdings will deliver almost a doubling of earnings over the next three years.

House prices in developed economies are soaring. In America they increased by 11 per cent in the 12 months to January, their fastest pace in 15 years. In New Zealand, prices are up by 22 per cent; in Germany by 9 per cent and in Britain by 8 per cent.

The way governments have acted to deal with the pandemic has come as a shock to all of us. A big shock. They have thrown money at the problem on a scale rightly compared with that of fighting a world war, abandoned any pretence of thrift in public affairs, and ordered about their citizens like schoolchildren. With hardly any opposition.