"The market should be wary of short-term palliatives"

Investors’ response to Chancellor George Osborne’s speech was muted, understandably, as the main points had already been fed to the press. Much was made of the additional £111bn of borrowing, but the reality is, as far as the market is concerned, that no-one ever truly expects anyone to repay the debt in its entirety; it’s more about the servicing of the interest. As far as government yields go, gilts are favourable. EU concerns The bigger story has to be whether France and Germany will make an alteration to the EU Treaty, and bring about greater fiscal union. In recent days, we ...