Toddlers soon learn that throwing a tantrum is the best way of getting what they want. Financial markets have absorbed the same lesson. When Congress rejected the American bail-out plan on September 29th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by a record 778 points in a single day. Politicians, and some of the voters, changed their minds.rnThe trouble with tantrums is that they are habit-forming. Congress passed the plan and stockmarkets still fell. The British authorities announced a rescue package for their country's banking system on October 8th and the ftse 100 index plummeted at the opening.
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