ECB between a rock and… soft credit
“Whatever it takes” was uttered by Mario Draghi in 2012 in an attempt to put an end to the European sovereign debt crisis. In the process it provided the backstop the market was looking for and provided a suitably accommodative monetary policy to support European government bond and European credit markets.
Out of the Darkness
Last year I wrote a piece entitled ‘A Moment in the Sun’ in which I donned my rose-tinted spectacles and looked forward to a glorious new age of banking profitability and stability. Clearly, war in Europe wasn’t part of the investment case.
Safety and return at the very short end
When we talk about the short end we are not talking about the stature of this fund manager. We are talking about the short end of the yield curve – those fixed income securities with short maturities and hence negligible price risk from movements in interest rates.
Method in this market madness
It’s the end of January and it’s clear to see that if this month is anything to go by we are in for a volatile headline filled year again!
Café del Mar anyone? Watch the sunset?
Brace yourself! This could be the year when the world goes on holiday. None of this worrying about how on earth you will use all your holiday allowance by the end of the year in 2022!
The Plastic Problem
It’s impossible to imagine our life without it. Durable, lightweight and cheap, plastic is a fundamental part of our existence. Having been around for a century or so, the material’s rise to prominence has largely been in the past 50 years and has become a booming industry. Indeed, the plastic bottle industry alone in the […]
What we can expect from central banks this week
It’s a monster week for central bank policy with some potentially big decisions to be made not only at home in the UK, but most importantly out of the US too.
Climbing the Slope (of the Yield Curve)
The years since the Global Financial Crisis have been hard for the banking system. There has been the very obvious damage wrought upon economies from lost growth, but there has also been the less obvious hit to returns brought about…
Yep, saving the planet is definitely inflationary
We’ve firmly been in “camp transitory” when it comes to inflation but nonetheless have also been very worried that inflation could be stickier than both the market and central bankers think. It was clear to us that supply disruption, particularly supply chains that interacted with China, as well as those reliant on semiconductors, could be […]
Central Banks – Pandemic end game in sight
The rise of the pandemic across the world resulted in unprecedented support from governments and central banks alike. Whilst furlough and company support schemes were rolled out by respective governments across the western world, central banks also went to town in their levels of monetary easing…