Against the tide: Forget the chads, we’re near the bottom

It's hard to imagine a worse news flow for markets. As I write, the US is without a winner in the presidential elections. The lawyers argue in the courts about whether various counties in Florida can conduct manual recounts. And people spend their time giving opinions on chads - those little round bits of paper hanging by a thread from the punch hole on a Florida ballot paper.

David Roche

Yes, who becomes global president – because that’s what the US leader is – is now to be determined by whether a chad is a chad and thus a legitimate vote for the president, or is merely a tear in the paper and so a spoiled vote.

The sense of unease is palpable. Americans are not used to political instability. For them, this is beginning to feel like a real constitutional crisis. But that’s an exaggeration.

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