Yield Chasing: There Is No Free Lunch

There is no free lunch.

The temptation to chase higher yielding securities is a ephemera.

Higher yields reflect greater risk. He who neglects that basic signal is subject to the laws of economics.

To the piper a price will be paid.

 

Allowing the Market to Clear

Perhaps my biggest problem with the bank bailouts, fiscal stimulus and quantitative easing is the idea that these artificial insertions impede the clearing of markets.

Closely associated with this idea, is the notion that "there is no such thing as a free lunch."

The possibility* that there is no such thing as a free lunch concerns me, because we are then left with the "law of unintended consequences" (and these could be great).

*it is, in fact, as close to an immutable law as you will get in economics