Long-term investors can generally afford to keep their portfolios in place unchanged, and wait for their stocks and bonds to recover their value as, ultimately, most of them are expected to do.

But they do need a little cashflow. Pension schemes must pay their monthly cheques to pensioners and insurance companies must pay out on annuities and claims. They do not want to raise the cash by selling shares, since this would crystallise dreadful losses at what may be the bottom of the market. What they want is dividends.