Grant Williams's Blog

In 1335, a Spanish author named Don Juan Manuel published a book of Castillian folk tales en-titled ‘Libro de los ejem-plos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio’ or, to give it its English title, ‘Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patriono’.

For many years, this classical conditioning has been prevalent across financial markets the world over but, while its prevalence cannot be doubted, it has remained unobtrusive for one reason and one reason only—it has worked almost flawlessly.

In March 2001, the Bank of Japan embarked upon a program that was called ‘ryōteki kin’yū kanwa’ or, to put it another way, ‘量的金融緩和’. To the vast majority of us it translated into something we are now intimately familiar with: Quantitative Easing.

For those amongst you who like tales of drunken British businessmen, unexplained deaths, cyanide poisoning, swift autopsies, mysterious political figures, Lady Macbeth type wives and police chiefs fleeing for their lives - read on.

The advent of ‘portfolio’ or ‘program’ trading which became popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, allowed managers to trade an entire portfolio (which often consisted of every stock in the S&P500) by placing a single order with a brokerage house. The launch of an S&P500 futures contract on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange had provided an arbitrage between stock and futures and Exchanges For Physical (EFPs) allowed for positions in stocks to be exchanged simply and easily for positions in futures contracts.

In his most recent piece of surgical brilliance, Greg Weldon laid out the numbers in simple fashion, revealing just how bad things have become in the Sceptered Isle.

Europe has a habit of putting structures in place that are inherently flawed and then trying to come up with all kinds of ways to cobble together a short-term fix.

Greece cannot pay its current debts back. Ever. More money is not the answer. Greece cannot even begin to recover while still chained to the Euro and unable to devalue. Greek citizens will NOT suddenly decide to pay their taxes.

This week houses one of the greatest days of any calendar year. It is a day eagerly-awaited by many around the world and provides just about the only employment for such characters as Staten Island Chuck, Smith Lake Jake, Balzac Billy and Sir Walter Wally. General Beauregard Lee makes his annual appearance as does Spanish Joe and even Dunkirk Dave, but each year, these would-be contenders have to bow down to the daddy of them all; the champion of champions, the one, the only, Punxsutawney Phil.

It's no secret that the US is completely unable to withstand higher interest rates and so, to maintain low rates, they have chosen to go down the path of Quantitative Easing or, to use the vernacular, moneyprinting.