Market reset delivers constant shock therapy

It was, as one economist put it, “a brutal day across risky markets” when on September 15 the S&P 500 shed a massive 4.7 per cent — its biggest one-day decline in seven years. “An ugly day in stocks,” he added. “Locusts” were picking off victims across global stocks, another market watcher agreed.

The verdict on the front page of this newspaper was blunt. “Day of reckoning on Wall Street”, the headline declared,…