9 Jun 2015

Scepticism is essential to successful investment. At its simplest, it implies recognising the possibility that anything the market prices as certain or very likely, might turn out to be false. This practical application of scepticism should feature in all investment decisions. Given the priceless value of scepticism, it seems wrong and somewhat suspicious that the word has acquired pejorative connotations. In Britain, “eurosceptics” are taken to be anti-Europe and specifically against the UK’s membership of the European Union. There are plenty of such people, but they seem to me to have made up their minds. If you are decided on a matter you are not sceptical. It may be that people against Europe like being called sceptics because it makes them seem more open minded. But this use of the word has started to turn it into a term of abuse, specifically in relation to the belief in climate change. Climate change deniers are referred to in language that implies them to be corrupt criminals or merely idiots and they are rarely if ever distinguished from those who choose to treat all arguments about climate change with scepticism. Here is Kofi Annan talking to the Guardian last month. “We seriously have to question the motivation of those people referred to as climate change sceptics, who are denying the evidence of human-caused climate change and preventing us from moving forward by spreading disinformation and supporting unchecked carbon pollution.” Climate change believers frequently state that 97% of all climate scientists agree that the consensus view – that global warming is caused by human activity – is true. As an investor, this assertion discomforts me. It makes me think of packages of securitised junk mortgage loans being given AAA+ scores by ratings agencies. If everyone thought or more precisely said that they thought they were OK, what could possibly go wrong? Ratings agencies were, it would seem, paid to award high ratings to rubbish. Whether climate scientists have a financial incentive to swim with the dolphins in the warm waters of the consensus I don’t know. But it is clear that on numerical grounds alone, publicly expressing scepticism will make you stand out a bit.   It...

19 Jun 2014

The yields of bonds issued by government are broadly influenced by three factors: the performance of the underlying economy; the outlook for the currency in which the bonds are denominated; and the probability of default. Eurozone government bonds have demonstrated all three factors at work since the financial crisis hit in 2008. The story can be traced by the changing yields offered by (for example) Italian 10 year government bonds since 2008. In the first half of 2008, yields rose as the market worried that governments would have to issue more debt to bail out a few troubled financial institutions. This was widely expected to be inflationary (bad news for bonds). By mid-2008, worries began to be directed towards the probability that the crisis was going to cause recession and that interest rates were heading down. For two years, Italian bond yields fell. Then the story changed again. The possibility that Italy (and a number of other Eurozone countries) might default caused near panic. Finally, in late 2011, the ECB began to convince investors that a solution would somehow be found. The second blip in yields in the summer of 2012 coincided with much wild talk of the break-up of the euro causing some panicky types to worry that Italy et al would honour their debt in a new made-up currency that they could “print” themselves. This was an irrational fear, not least because much of the German and French banking system was a huge holder of such debt and would have been effectively destroyed. Through the rest of 2012 and 2013, Italian government bond yields normalised, offering a consensus view that the economy was poor, inflation low and the government unreliable but unlikely actually to default. In 2014, something quite different has happened. Yields on Eurozone bonds have started to deliver a single rather shocking message – low economic growth and low inflation are here to stay for years and years. Assuming that an investor is happy to disregard the risk that the Italian government will default, we must contemplate the fact that he apparently believes that a 2.6% return on Italian assets is enough to justify a ten year investment. As the...