Whilst we all focus on the immediate challenges posed by Covid-19, companies, investors and government must also begin to think about the longer-term consequences of what we are living through.

For one, we need to re-think the relative attractions of debt and equity capital to finance businesses.  Over my career the mantra that equity is expensive capital and debt cheap has grown ever louder, with the academic blessing of the “efficient balance sheet” demanding that boards and management teams juice up the returns to equity by maximising the use of debt.