Authorities are once again yanking on the levers to keep the market from backsliding into some sort of price discovery. And it worked. The markets in China were up on Monday, with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.8% and the Shenzhen Composite surging 2.6%, which set the tone in Asia. All major Asian markets showed gains, except in Japan where markets were closed due to the National Founding Day, one of the 16 market holidays of the year. So they missed out.

And it is calming the waters in the US. Well done. But then, why even have markets? Why can’t Chinese authorities just set the price of each stock and make it go up at regular intervals, at a rate deemed to be appropriate by authorities? It would offer true risk-free investing in stocks. It could become a national wealth builder. The entire world would invest in such a scheme. Think of the possibilities! And it would be a lot more efficient than this haphazard guessing-and-manipulation game.