Prepare for another roller coaster ride

By Gordon Brown, fund manager at Baillie Gifford The year 2001 will be remembered as a roller coaster year for international bond markets. In the face of the sharpest global slowdown for almost 20 years, international bond yields fell steadily throughout most of the year, only for this to be wiped out in just over one month towards the end. Prior to the terrorist attacks of 11 September, the global economic slowdown was already acute and well under way. The US economy was slowing into recession, growth in the euro area economies was stagnating and Japan was in the middle of its third...