And that’s not as absurd a headline as you might imagine. The American plan to freeze interest rates on thousands of subprime home loans for five years amounts to direct intervention in the market for mortgage backed securities. And that was good for another 1.3 per cent on the Dow on Thursday and a further 1 per cent on the Footsie in London on Friday.
But can the spectre of politicians setting prices possibly be good for stocks?
Debate the issue on markets Live, FT Alphaville’s daily markets discussion, at 11am on Friday.
Also on the chat list: BSkyB, Northern Rock, the housebuilders and also a strange little insolvency specialist called Begbies Traynor that has totally confounded followers.
Hit the tab above or click here at 11am.