AMIDST the debris of value destruction, shock and disbelief that has engulfed investors across most asset classes and the force-fed daily diet of unrelenting depressing news involving the dreaded R word (recession), it’s no wonder that we have succeeded in talking ourselves literally and herd-like into a recession.
Flat, crowded, burnt, globalised markets: The year 2008 was disastrous. We saw global markets struggle with a wildfire-like contagion encompassing credit losses, spectacular collapses of venerable financial institutions, deteriorating global growth, rapid real demand destruction and deflating asset values aggravated by forced sales due to deleveraging activity.