Bull-market Japan saw the TOPIX tumble -6.9% on record volume yesterday, as yen shorts unwound and the bond market gyrated violently. Equities sprung back this morning, but then got spooked after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank will not target the equity market. Even though it would be complete madness to expect the BoJ to ever jump into an equity market that is already up 80% since mid-November, this was enough for stocks to give back most of their gains by the close (up +1%)...

It has been a challenge to keep up with the explosive growth of China’s wealth management products (WMPs; in Chinese, licai chanpin), the retail investment products that offer savers higher returns than traditional bank deposits. As more and more banks have jumped on the WMP bandwagon in order to attract and retain depositors, the total size of bank WMPs outstanding has grown to Rmb7.1 trn as of end-2012, from Rmb4.6 trn in 2011. Regulators have generally taken a relaxed view of WMPs, seeing them as a benign force for liberalizing deposit rates. But they have now started to take a tougher stance, enforcing new standards on the banks that issue these products. Does this crackdown mean that Chinese regulators have finally woken up to an explosion in potential risk, and are desperately trying to contain this swarm of vampire squidlets before they devour the financial system? No, because much of the alarmist commentary about WMPs misses how fundamentally boring most of these products are. The vast majority of WMPs offered by...

For the past six months, and again on Tuesday, Anatole has argued for a structural equity bull market, at least in the US and Japan, in which dips had to be bought. The corollary to this reality is the question of whether OECD government bonds have now entered a bear market in which any rally is to be sold?...

In the latest Five Corners biweekly review of global economics and investment: Investment overview: Arthur Kroeber argues that all four major economies are making "inefficient restructurings." The US is furthest along in the process, so its bull market is sustainable...

This afternoon, Ben Bernanke will head up to the Hill for a scheduled testimony bound to capture everyone’s attention. Indeed, in recent days we have seen other Federal Reserve uber-doves back away from their usual rhetoric...