It is important to understand that the Dow is moved by people who thought that Bernie Madoff is a genius and that Pets.com was worth tens of billions of dollars. And, they somehow could not see an $8 trillion housing bubble right in front of their faces.

The people who move markets are not people with a deep understanding of the economy or anything else. It would be absolutely crazy to try to run economic policy based on the peculiar quirks of the Wall Street crew.

YESTERDAY morning, Virginia politicos caught wind of a rumour that one of the Democrats in the state Senate was about to switch parties. Because the Democrats had a 21-19 majority, that shift would have flipped control over to the Republicans. Then Jeff Frederick, the chairman of the state Republicans picked up his smartphone and sent out a tweet.

“Big news out of Senate: Apparently one dem is either switching or leaving the dem caucus. Negotiations for power sharing underway.”

And that’s how the Democrats found about about the plot. They adjourned business, cornered the rogue senator, and browbeat him out of his big plan.“Be authentic on Twitter,” texted Patrick Ruffini, a Republican web guru. “But still keep a frickin’ secret when you need to.”