The US even did so after 9/11.

"The gilt market usually opens at 8am but you could know the result some time before that and so that would make it more of a casino not less of a casino."

In that case, the exchange could be shut down until Monday...

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

That's real voting. Or fraternal fun.

Which the right wing is known to do of course. For example, see under Bush, George.

"Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. - Galbraith"

Ritual punishment of transgressions... in public... enforcing the religion...

you are the media you consume.

I'll probably have more to say about all this, but let me focus for the moment on one particular line -- the one where Glassman says,

Now that the financial reform debate is in the final innings, it's time for the grownups to step in.

Atrios writes about this often, the persistent perception that conservative authority figures are the grownups, the people who know what really works, while the critics are pie-in-the-sky nuts. Yet for the past decade at least, the "grownups" have again and again proved utterly clueless

So, who cares?

... For this would force the investor to direct his mind to the long-term prospects and to those only. But a little consideration of this expedient brings us up against a dilemma, and shows us how the liquidity of investment markets often facilitates, though it sometimes impedes, the course of new investment. For the fact that each individual investor flatters himself that his commitment is 'liquid' (though this cannot be true of all investors collectively) calms his nerves  and makes him much more willing to run a risk. If individual purchases of investments were rendered illiquid, this might seriously impede new investment, so long as alternative ways in which to hold his savings are availale to the individual. This is the dilemma. So long as it is open to the individual to employ his wealth in hoarding or lending money, the alternative of purchasing actual capital assets cannot be rendered sufficiently attractive (especially to the man who does not manage the capital assets and know very little about them), except by organising markets wherein these assets can be easily realised for money.