A curse on your interesting times

Among the many Christmas cards received by Investment Week this year, the common theme has revolved around we are, without doubt, living in interesting times.

From the brief glimmer of hope at the start of this year, to the blind panic of March and the quite remarkable rally that has followed, you would be hard pushed to find an investor or adviser who was bored at any point this year. Living in interesting times is supposed to be the first of three Chinese curses, the second of which is “may you come to the attention of the government” and the third “may you get what you want”. It is fair to say financial services have come to the attention of governments as never before. It seems a long time since the mainstream press was running extended...