Remember what bank managers used to be like. They weren’t all perfect, of course. Just as some made inspired decisions, others got it wrong.

The media’s favourite bank manager is Captain Mainwaring, of Dads Army. Just imagine if you went to visit him with a request for a loan, and just think what you would conclude if the conversation went like this.

“Mr Mainwaring, I have manged to get hold of some cheap booze, and I need a loan in order to ship it in.”

The austere Mr Mainwaring then replies: “Just a moment Mr Walker (let’s assume that is your name) and then shouts out, “Wilson, switch the printing press on, we need to print some money for Walker.”

If you had heard those words it would have come as a shock – no mater how spiv like you were.

Well, yesterday a picture emerged that it could just end up being like that for real.

But the bank manager in this case wouldn’t be Mr Mainwaring, rather it would be Dr Mervyn King. And the person asking for the loan would not be some spiv like fellow called Walker, rather it would be one of Britain’s finest companies.

But, whatever the precise circumstances, the fact is that yesterday the government gave the Bank of England the green light to print money.

It isn’t literally printing money. These days, of course, cash only makes up a small proportion of money. Most of our money is measured electronically. And so it is that the printing press in question churns out electronic money.

Yesterday, the Bank of England was given leave to buy up to £50bn of corporate debt.

To begin with, however, the electronic printing press will be off. At first, the Bank of England will fund its activity via treasury bills. In effect, then, it will be borrowing money in order to lend it. However, the Bank has now been given authority to buy corporate debt, without borrowing money first, at a later date.

It seems that the first step towards what is called quantitative easing has been made.