The Guardian has reported this afternoon that:

Share prices have soared across the world, with Wall Street rising more than 400 points within minutes of the start of trading in New York, on hopes that the American government will ride to the rescue of the country's distressed banks.

The mood was also lifted by a ban this side of the Atlantic on the practice of short-selling and hopes for a rescue of Wall Street's second largest investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Never again tell me that strong regulation is not good for markets, or that most in them know it. This is the evidence writ large for all to see.