In the headlines this morning:

It will be a short comment this morning as I play catch up and try to figure out if we should be worried that it’s the Year of the PIG. Sounds great, but I’m supposed to be on a diet….

Reason for catch up is I’ve just spent a week with 300 or so like-minded bankers, brokers, fund managers and tech-experts at Interbourse; the largest annual Ski event across the financial services sector. It’s been running for over 50 years. All the major markets were represented – and aside from great skiing in Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, California, there were some great (liquid-fuelled) discussions on markets. The 2020 event will be in Switzerland.

Let me sum up the week with some of the strands of opinion heard in the resort:

The European’s don’t understand why the UK is so keen on Economic Suicide via Brexit. The Brits don’t understand why the Europeans are so keen on the EU and Euro. The Hedge Fund managers reckon the real effects of Brexit are being massively overestimated and see value across markets. The Tech sector analysts think we’re on the cusp of massive upside in Tech Stocks. Everyone is worried about populism. The Canadians had more fun than anyone else. The Germans took it quite seriously. Everyone was fine and dandy with the Fed applying the brakes to policy normalisation. Everyone was looking to earnings. I still don’t understand Coin-Token Driven IPOs. No one could quite understand why Trump is so keen on the Wall – liberal doses of Tequila proved a great way of easing strained muscles..