It happened, Basel III kicked in and so far nothing has happened. Rob was never taken in by the hoopla. Under no circumstances can it be a game changer. The entities who control the market have been granted exemptions or have been grand-fathered in. Funny how that works. The debt creation continues on at accelerating rates and yet the appetite for it continues unabated. Where are the bond vigilantes when you need them? They used to exist, but they are now extinct, thanks to the plunge protection team.
Rob Kirby is a financial commentator and former broker who worked on an institutional trading desk for most of the 1980s and right up until 1996. He also worked for 11 years at Prebon Yamane, an international inter-dealer broker of foreign exchange and interest rate products. He spent an additional year at another money/bond broker called Freedom Bond Brokers, then spent two years at Garban Inc., another inter dealer bond brokerage in Toronto - and left the industry in 1996. He started writing in 1997, and was involved in a number of entrepreneurial pursuits from marketing Buffalo meat to a part time stint in the giftware business. In 2002, he went to work for Investor's Group, the largest Mutual Fund Company in Canada. He worked there up until September '04 when he resigned to write about the markets - and his book - from a "gold bug's" point of view. His website is called Kirby Analytics.