The colossal disarray over the British government’s plans to leave the European Union comes at an awkward moment for global financial markets.

How can anyone in New York hope to make sense of the mess in London when the government in Washington is closed one day, set to re-open the next and in danger of shutting down again soon?

Yet financial markets put a price on just about anything, and they don’t stop functioning when governments do. Even when a projected outcome is gruesome or improbable, some traders will try to make a wager on it. Bets on “Brexit” — Britain’s exit from the European Union — and the effects of the government shutdown in this country are well underway.

Whether these bets are humane or prudent is another question. But the shifting odds on Brexit have moved stock, bond and foreign exchange markets, especially in the past two weeks, as the government of Prime Minister Theresa May has flirted with disaster.