China

So far in 2022, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has resolutely stuck to its policy of negative interest rates and yield curve control (YCC), despite the dramatic hawkish shift from the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) and, more recently, the yen’s nosedive. Might the BoJ be about to change course?

This year, the global population surpassed eight billion people.

The extraordinary population growth over the past century has relied upon, and been enabled by, the birth of vast industrial farming systems. Food, on aggregate, is plentiful. Yet today, the dual issues of food security and sustainability loom as large as they have done in the post-industrial era. These megatrends present sources of both investment risk and opportunity.

It is hard to overstate how far free and unlimited central bank liquidity has rewired the financial system. As central bankers extract themselves from the monetary rabbit hole they have burrowed their way into, the damage to traditional portfolios is likely to be considerable.

This tightening of monetary policy is happening because inflation has returned – with a vengeance. Central banks are lifting short-term interest rates at a brisk pace. But there is an additional danger for liquidation-prone markets: quantitative tightening (QT).

Investors face one of the most complex market environments in history.

Simultaneous shifts in the global energy system, geopolitics, demography, technology and much else besides promise a more inflation-prone and volatile world ahead. This brings with it elevated risks, but also potential rewards.

Amidst all the uncertainty, this presentation from Ruffer LLP Investment Director Alexander Chartres will examine what investors can have conviction about.