David Jane: Are the cynics now in charge?

One way of considering the financial system in the post-QE era has been to understand that everything has become increasingly dependent on confidence in central bankers. So long as markets believed debt levels no longer mattered, and countries could grow their outstanding debt without consequence, the show could be kept on the road. Government bonds, despite being valued at yields that did not even compensate for inflation, were somehow a worthwhile investment. In equity markets, earnings could grow on the back of ever-lower interest burdens, enabling companies to assume debt and buy bac...