As one of Con Edison’s power distribution substations in Lower Manhattan went up in smoke – and flames – on Monday, and all the lights went out in much of the business district, canny investors were rushing for the shares of the likes of Comdisco and Sungard on the expectation that foolish virgins would finally get the disaster recovery message – Comdisco is said to have recovered systems for at least six banks and the usual gridlock at the main junctions in the narrow streets was put down to the army of disaster recovery personnel getting in each other’s way – and trading on Wall Street was as disorderly as it has been since Saddam Hussein put a hammerlock on Kuwait’s oil, so that fingers were poised to activate the controls mandated by the New York Stock Exchange to calm down overheated markets when Con Ed did a much better job than any chairman of the Stock Exchange could manage – and impressed traders looked at one another and exclaimed so that’s what they meant when they said they were introducing circuit breakers.
