Thus the Financial Times today. “Rise in volatility suggests central banks losing grip on markets,” elaborates the newspaper. In particular, the CBOE Vix index, known as the “Wall Street fear gauge,” has jumped to almost twenty-five percent, the highest since 2012, when investors feared the eurozone breakup. By the way, the Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index is based on the movement of the Standard & Poor 500 index options. Introduced in 1993, it provides a useful gauge of market volatility, which is a gauge of fear in turn. At any rate, a big hooray for the Vix index! For fear is what befits the stockmarkets at this juncture. Sheer fear. The future is murky at best. The good thing is that the index is widely available on the World Wide Web. You can follow it hour by hour, day by day. And laugh your head off at the capitalist system as it has come to pass.