Contrarian: Fear and loathing in financial markets

CONTRARIAN

Financial markets love to throw us a curve ball - just when you thought it was safe to start worrying about inflation in the future, up pops the evil deflationary gremlin of yesteryear.

The last few years of unprecedented monetary intervention has prompted a huge wave of inflationary fear and loathing. If I had a pound for every fund manager who said we should tremble before the prospect of an inflationary surge in the latter half of the decade, I would be a very rich man. In fact, whole armies of portfolio managers have carefully constructed their assets predicated on the whole idea QE must inevitably spark a firestorm of inflationary brimstone. But sad to say, the spectre of deflation is back on the agenda, leaving advisers with an ever-smaller number of options. ...