times: China's rocketing markets

China’s stock markets are roaring to record levels as millions of small investors bet their savings in a frenzy of speculation. But there is a danger the markets may overheat and even crash with unforeseeable consequencesThe mania for shares among Chongqing taxi drivers is likely to rattle western investors, who remember that the temporary slump in Chinese equities on February 27 set off a global rout in capital markets at a cost of more than £1,000 billion. “Trading hours coincided with my shift so I gave up my cab,” Lin Huaqiang, a driver, told a local reporter who discovered that more than 100 cabbies had followed his example.