The writer is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and an adviser to Allianz and Gramercy
Markets spent most of 2021 trading on assurances from major central banks, and the US Federal Reserve in particular, that inflation would be transitory and monetary policy would continue to remain in uber stimulus mode. That powerful conditioning fuelled the “everything rally” in markets. 2022 will be different.
Markets will no longer have predictably massive liquidity injections to power them through uncharted and choppy economic waters. Crucially, investors will have to take a view on the durability and impact of the inflation surge, including the drivers of its eventual demise.