The bursting of a big ten-year bubble

Ignore the warning signs that the global economy is slowing at your peril – as shown by a painful December for the stock markets

Christmas is usually a quiet time for financial markets. The number of trading days is reduced, they are shortened and fewer people are about.

Last month, though, proved the exception to that rule. There was very little festive cheer about as stock markets across the world endured one of the biggest declines since the 2008 global crisis.

If you want to look at the record books in the US for similar drops, you’d ...