Optimism springs anew

The vast sums of money sloshing around capital markets have been having an effect. According to the Bank of America’s calculations, investment funds have raised USD 576 bln, more than in 2009 and 2020. The mood of optimism on the bourses is not only due to the low interest rates but also and above all to the vaccination programmes. In large part due to them, the world is now expecting a rapid bounce-back. The economic forecasts are being revised dramatically upwards, especially for those countries with the most advanced vaccination programmes such as the UK, where expected the expected growth is higher than it has been in the 80 years since the Second World War. In the US the stock markets are being fuelled by the huge public aid package (each citizen is to receive a cheque for USD 1,400) and some of this is certain to turn up on the capital markets. It’s therefore no strange thing that stock market records there are being broken – over the last year, the S&P 500