At 79, Jim Slater is still a celebrated picker of stocks, but he reckons this is the time to steer well clear of equities.

He says: "The markets are playing tug-of-war between defl ation and hyper-infl ation on the edge of a precipice. Governments are willingly putting their currencies at risk to throw money at defl ation. When that is dealt with, we shall be facing the possibility of hyper-inflation."