When Rachel Reeves joined the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington last week, she might have believed that she was mixing with the global elite.

Alas, she would have been wrong. The genuinely elite countries are careful to maintain a low profile at international summits, if their representatives attend at all. You are unlikely to encounter all of them at World Bank or IMF gatherings.

They are never members of the European Union and though they are found in the United Nations, they seldom appear on the Security Council. They certainly would never be seen dead at the G7.

In fact, the real elite are the polar opposite of the seven countries which claim to be the most advanced in the world. Whereas every G7 nation runs a colossal budget deficit and sails on an ocean of debt, with even Donald Trump quailing before the might of the bond market to scale-down his tariffs, a handful of nations are quietly yet triumphantly exempt from these pressures.

In this tiny international circle, governments not only balance their budgets but achieve huge surpluses. They generate enough cash not just to fund public services but to amass immense sovereign wealth funds, usually invested in the G7.

Their good fortune is explained by the fact that all these states combine immense oil reserves with small populations. And no matter what we might think of them, Britain is living off their largesse since we must borrow the money to cover a yawning budget deficit from somewhere.