Like more than 99% of the people commenting on the Covid 19 virus, we are not expert virologists, but we are ‘humble students of the markets’ which means we are interested in the psychology of crowds as well as the behaviour of state and other actors.

At the start of the year we assumed that the biggest rise in market uncertainty would be due to US politics and that this would begin with the Democratic Primaries.

So in the end the Liberal Democrats and the Brexit Party ended up doing more damage to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party than to Boris Johnson’s Tories.

I had booked my flights for a pre-Christmas visit to London before it was announced that there would be a General Election in the UK on December 12th. As such I find myself here on a highly significant day for the UK economy.

The sudden escalation of violence in Hong Kong and the dramatic and telegenic use of incendiary devices ensured that Hong Kong dominated the global 24/7 news cycle over the last two weeks, culminating in an Alamo style standoff at one of the Hong Kong Universities over the weekend.