What were you thinking?

'Era of TINA is coming to an end'

2022 has been an eventful year across financial markets, and while anything could happen during the last few weeks of December, I thought it would be worth reflecting on the extraordinary market behaviour we have seen over the past few years.

It feels as though there are numerous examples from the final throws of this cycle that could be placed under the microscope of the financial historian, decades from now. Could it be Austria's 100-year bond that yielded 0.375% in December 2020, down over 60% since? Or perhaps, US CCC rated corporate debt yielding 7.5% in the summer of 2021, a credit rating that has a long-term average annual default rate of 25%? Echoes of Scott McNealy's well-known "What were you thinking?" post-DotCom crash interview from 20 years ago rings in the ears, as investors have once again collectively fa...