Beware the Ghost of Trump Chaos Future

TWO YEARS AGO, after the shock of US President Donald Trump's election, financial markets briefly freaked out, then quickly recovered. In effect, they decided that while Mr Trump was manifestly unqualified for the job - temperamentally and intellectually - it would not matter. He might talk the populist talk, but he would walk the plutocratic walk. He might be erratic and uninformed, but wiser heads would keep him from doing anything too stupid.

In other words, investors convinced themselves that they had a deal: Mr Trump might sound off, but he would not really get to make policy. And, hey, taxes on corporations and the wealthy would go down.

But now, just in time for Christmas, people are realising that there was no such deal - or at any rate, that there was no sanity clause. Put an unstable, ignorant, belligerent man in the Oval Office, and he will eventually do crazy things.