Beware of manipulated utopias

As a fan of dystopian classics such as Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ and Orwell’s ‘1984’, Martin Conlon, Schroders’ Head of Australian equites, finds their insights into the perils of searching for a manipulated utopia alarmingly relevant to today’s financial world. As a rationalist, he suggests the benefits of manipulating asset prices and interest rates in the name of a healthier economy is, at best, an exercise in futility. To borrow from John Tuld in ‘Margin Call’: “It’s just money; it’s made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don’t have to kill each other just to get something to eat.” The recent ructions created in markets by relatively small shifts in bond yields serve to highlight the hyper sensitive nature of financial markets given decades of accumulated intervention. (VIEW LINK)