Central Banks Investing in Equities

QUESTION: There is a new trend that central banks are investing in the stock markets Is this true? What is the impact of this move?

ANSWER: Yes. The reason has been rather straight forward. The only game in town has been US government bonds. Many have seen this as a problem the defeats diversification. Consequently, there has been a major effort to attempt to diversify into the private sector when there has been such uncertainty in the public sector. Behind the Curtain many are simply asking of Europe: What the hell is going on? This has been a “euro crisis” that simply never seems to end. What has happened to Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Holland and now even France. Many outside of Europe are simply asking has Europe just lost its mind? Hence, there has been a move to diversify out of government debt by central banks themselves.