. . . millions wiped off THE London share market
has boiled over, too, and all that is surprising about that is that anybody is surprised at it. It had gone raging forward for most of the year, it had continued its advance when gilt-edged had begun to retreat. It had developed into something of a buying panic. Markets do exaggerate, do correct themselves, do as a rule climb gradually and fall steeply. Gov- ernments, for that matter, do tend to ride the economy with spur and whip before an election, and tug on the reins after it. The numbers are now so big — the FT indices themselves, and the value of stocks — that any fair-sized fall (or rise) breaks some record. Time was when I used to struggle with excited news editors who had seen on the tape that millions of pounds had been wiped off share prices, and should we not have this story across the front page in the blackest and boldest type? I would point out that a movement of one point in the FT Index was then equal to £118 million or so off share prices, and that a day when millions were not wiped on or off would be ruinous for the stock market, as implying a total lack of business. The news editors were, and are, not interested.
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