On your marks, get set, hold it. Beijing is preparing for next month’s Olympics by clamping down on almost everything: visa applications, pollution-belching factories and use of explosives. Now it wants to ensure financial market stability by chaining stockbrokers and fund managers to their desks during the games – the securities regulator has “advised” senior managers to delay holiday plans for August.

The travel edict looks pointless. The Shanghai market has already more than halved since the October peak. What is more, bloodletting on the stock market has not spilled over into the main economy, chiefly because gains were built up quickly and investor participation is small. The bigger threat now is the reverse: that slower economic growth and inflation dent corporate earnings growth, sending share prices lower. Bears believe the Games could further depress output. Disappointing forward occupancy rates in Beijing’s hotels for August suggest that the traditional offset of greater public spending – tourism receipts – may fall short.