Authored by Bill Blain via MorningPorridge.com,

Europe's vaccine rollout is in tatters as a result of stupid politics and a desire to blame the UK, while the UK has just sent a very unsubtle message about Europe looking after itself. Its a silly playground squabble that needs to be resolved quickly, but at its heart is the usual European problem: Britain vs France.

Let me apologise for not writing about bond markets, the likelihood Central Banks will let inflation ride, the ongoing relative strength of equity investments, and therefore the likelihood the market retains its current valuations for longer… but we need to talk about Yoorp, again, this morning.

One of my key market mantras is: outcomes are seldom as bad as we fear, but never as good as we hope. We have a bias to overweight our expectations of utter disaster, but mankind being a social animal, the reality is common sense usually prevails to create workable compromises. Societies that don't compromise – don't last long.