Abstract

Yesterday, the debutante bail-out bond for the Euro-zone was hailed as a hit for the fashion parade that might follow. Japan’s interest of 20% in the bond signals that the rest of the world might have hope for the future of Europe.

Where does the UK stand in all this? The yield of the bail-out bond is currently lower than the yield of the UK bond. This signals the relatively higher trust the market has in the bail-out nations rather than in the UK. We have learnt that the financial world are fickle stewards and are perfect examples of the problems of agency theory (serve thyself before serving the principal stakeholders viz. the nation, the public and the shareholders). What is clear is that we can never again depend exclusively on the financial ramparts to lift our economy to lofty heights.