Bankers have courted the company for years but only in the past year has Glencore become open-minded to schemes to raise "permanent capital".

Leverage can limit your staying power and transform a temporary impairment (i. e., price volatility) into a permanent impairment of capital.

But talent and capital are getting more mobile; and the demographic pressure of those ageing populations is mounting. The ever larger state cannot go on for ever. It will stop.