Riddell: Why have so many investors been so wrong about gilts?

Lots of people have loathed bonds

Post 2008, the vast majority of investors, strategists and economists have consistently forecast a series of interest rate hikes.

The expectation was that super easy monetary policy, combined with (in some countries) loose fiscal policy, would result in a bounce back in growth, an erosion of spare capacity, and ultimately inflationary pressure. A significant minority even thought that the experiment with unconventional monetary policy would inevitably result in something akin to what happened in Weimar Germany, and probably bought a lot of gold. Ex-M&G bond manager Riddell to join Allianz GI The consequence of this consensus view was that many people have loathed bonds for years, and government bonds in partic...