I reckon this neat little quote from BankAustria Creditanstalt Int'l (HK)'s Paul Giles sums up the last year: "Huge expectations are being raised . We can't justify buying and we can't afford to be out. If there is a crash, we can't defend ourselves from lawsuits on the basis of these prices."
[Picked that one up in the April 13 FEER (p34).]
Here's a banker telling us competition is making him do criminally reckless things which might contribute to a global disaster. Homo economicus exposed as inimical to the common good, no?
Hope this reminds a few people to look at their founding father's writings on the subject - where he speculates the hidden hand might usually be the best thing for the common good. There's a hell of an escape clause buried in there, and buried all the deeper over the last couple of decades - seems Banker Giles is helping dig it up again, eh?
Cheers, Rob.