In a perceptive recent column for the FT, "Low rates: the drug we can all do without", Satyajit Das pointed out that low rates actively discourage savings, "creating a disincentive for the capital accumulation that would reduce overall debt levels". Since we are also trying to navigate through the biggest debt crisis in world history, policymakers appear to be saying to investors that the beatings will continue until morale improves. Artificially low rates are also literally punishing for defined benefit pension funds; Das suggests that for every 1% fall in US rates, pension fund liabilities increase by roughly $180 billion. And low rates feed asset price inflation and fundamentally distort asset prices, encourage mispricing of risk, and create further asset bubbles - like the one currently inflating in, irony of ironies, western market government debt.

David Fuller's view There is much to ponder in this paragraph and the rest of Tim Price's letter, which I commend to you. It is a constant reminder that we are navigating in an unstable financial world.

However, we also know that the pace of technological innovation continues to increase. And while standards of living are declining for citizens in some regions, wealth is also being created around the world at a faster pace than at any other time in history. This is not a bad time to be an investor, if we know where to look.