Everyone likes a clean explanation. But with fingers pointing wildly around politics, the economy and the globe, the ultimate answer to Tuesday’s markets sell-off may simply be that there isn’t one.
Felix Salmon would like a little honesty. “But instead,” he writes, “we’re inundated with “explanations”, from an assassination attempt on Dick Cheney (Daily Intelligencer: “Are investors balking because Cheney was attacked? Or because he wasn’t hurt?”) to a drop in one of the most boring economic series in the US. (Go on — quick — tell me what a durable goods order even is.)”
Then there’s China, Greenspan, oil, Iran… the list is endless and makes for confusing reading.
“This is known as the kitchen-sink explanation for market behaviour,” says Andrew Leonard. “Or, in other words, we really don’t have a clue why the market spooked.”