There has never been a corporate scandal like the Huang affair

IN THE gossip columns, it is the story of a steamy affair between an American billionaire who wears a leather jacket and a younger woman who allegedly works for Chinese intelligence.

On Wall Street, it illustrates a three-fold concentration risk: the danger of a stock market which depends on one technology, which depends on one firm, which depends on one man.

In Washington, they talk of a rotten commerce department, the closeness of President Donald Trump to tech bosses, and divisions in the Republican Party over China.