Risk on, for now

We spent much of last year in a state of outright gloom over the outlook for the world economy and, by extension, the prospects for riskier assets like equities. In the early part of 2011 we were largely alone in this view, but as the year progressed we found ourselves increasingly in the mainstream. But we have never liked crowds. They might be good places to hide, or even to cheer on football teams, but have very limited efficacy when it comes to making useful investment decisions. And so, towards the end of last year we started to detect gleams of sunshine behind even the darkest c...