Euro zone bailout: The euro zone has gone for the big numbers &mdash; and it works, at least for now. European Union leaders and their finance ministers have come up with a 720 billion plan to stop contagion in sovereign debt. The European Central Bank has agreed to play ball, and will add sovereign bond-buying to its crisis-fighting tool box. The central bank is also spraying liquidity at the banks to stop the sovereign crisis turning into a new banking one.

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Junk bonds: Easy money has been kind to risky companies and their lenders. Firms like Clearwire Communications and HCA found critical funding in 2010, while investors in their bonds have enjoyed stellar double-digit returns, with the Bank of America Merrill Lynch high yield index returning nearly 14 per cent by early December. So much money sloshing around the global financial system, however, also makes for outsized distortions and in 2011 could trigger a junk bond correction.

Neil Unmack

Neil Unmack

Page 6 - Neil Unmack

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