Far from the madding crowds

The reaction of the major financial markets to the death of Osama Bin Laden shows the disparity between those who look forward and those who look back.

While the sight of people cheering on the streets of New York might have been unedifying to many, there is no doubt the reaction of many will have been relief rather than happiness the world’s most wanted man is no longer personally a threat. If you cast your mind back nearly 10 years to what we now call 9/11, financial markets fell sharply but bounced back quickly in the aftermath of what was then an unprecedented act of terrorism. A decade on, it seems appropriate markets just shrugged and carried on with their current direction of two steps forward, one step back. The reality is m...