Last year’s Australian Financial Review Business Summit, we said at the time, seemed to be taking place on the hinge of history. The world economy was still emerging from multiple lockdowns, with unknowable effects. A new war of conquest in Europe was threatening to deepen a 1970s-style energy and inflation crisis.

A year on, and the hinge has swung even further. Russia has blundered into a long war against inspired Ukrainian resistance that could escalate further. Central banks continue battling with global inflation – the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate for the tenth consecutive month on Tuesday – that may still be far from tamed.