In China, the invisible hand of the market is far weaker than the very obvious hand of the government, which likes to deliver a slap now and again to put participants back in line. Chinese bond markets froze in mid-December as rumours spread that ex-employees of Sealand Securities had forged borrowing agreements involving bonds - using fake rubber stamps - and the institutions on the other side of the contracts would be left to face losses on securities that had traded down.
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