Markets spooked but it’s a correction not a crash

AT the heart of this week’s stock market mayhem is ending an era of cheap money.

Investors got rich from central banks slashing interest rates to record lows and launching quantitative easing – creating new cash – after the banking crisis a decade ago. Now the tap is slowing being turned off and the markets are spooked.

The sell-off could well have been worsened by computer trading with no human input. But one swallow doesn’t make a summer and the stock slump needs to be put into perspective.

Families, after all, are more concerned about the pound in their pocket here and now.