Engineers, scientists and mathematicians became socially useless but highly paid bankers and money flowed not into productive assets but to speculative ones, such as houses.

It would indeed allow higher borrowing but only if this were invested in productive assets.

This would create a negative risk-free interest rate, encouraging savers either to invest in property, shares and other productive assets - or simply to save less and consume more.

But the economy also needs rebalancing through a shift to exports and investment rather than debtbased consumption — specifically towards long-term investment in productive assets rather than short-term speculative property accumulation.

It would also create conditions for the pound to fall even farther, stimulating exports, and for savings institutions to invest more in productive assets, such as commercial property and shares.