A couple of months ago one of our writers asked, "Do  I need to explain to the readers what 'stagflation' is?" The editor, being of a certain age, briefly turned puce at the ridiculous notion that Financial Director readers might need such a simple term defined for them.

Then he went a little pale as he realised that a number of readers will never have actually experienced the simultaneous perils of runaway inflation and a crushing recession - well, not in their professional lives, anyway.

They might be about to get their chance now that the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, is warning about "an odd quarter or two of negative growth" while the outlook for inflation is northwards from the current 3%.

Okay, it's not exactly a repeat of 1970s-era stagflation when inflation and unemployment rates were both in double figures. But they always say that you can't have just a little bit of inflation. It's like being just a little bit pregnant.