So there you have it. The US Federal Reserve sets monetary policy to fit conditions in the US economy. If decisions taken by the Fed cause collateral damage elsewhere, well, tant pis. So much for global governance.

Janet Yellen was loud and clear in her testimony to Congress this week. In so far as the Fed’s policy of withdrawing monetary stimulus had spooked markets in emerging economies, the turbulence did not represent a “substantial risk to the US economic outlook”. Put this another way: the world’s most powerful central bank pays attention to what happens in China, India or Turkey only in so far as it washes back over the US.

In one respect, the Fed chairwoman was offering a statement of both the obvious and the politically prudent. The duty of the Fed is to promote the economic wellbeing of the US. Had Ms Yellen said it was tailoring its tapering programme to the wishes of policy makers in Beijing, Delhi or Ankara, her first appearance before Congress as chairwoman might have been her last. Members of the House of Representatives are not noted for their devotion to multilateralism.