The stock market is volatile again. Get used to it

Optimists believe that the global economy can still grow at 4%

The fear generated by Wall Street’s sharp fall has been greatly magnified by the calm that preceded it. Before the eight per cent decline in United States stocks over the past week, the S&P 500 had gone two years without suffering a drop that large. Spoiled by this unnaturally placid stretch, many Americans had forgotten what a routine market setback even looks like.

They better get used to this. Going back three decades, the average market drop in any given year has typically been around 10 per cent. What Americans are witnessing now is thus a return to normal market behavior,