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Monitor | Quantitative easing endgame is nothing to lose sleep over

Fears of a crisis in bond market confidence or a fall in the value of money are inflated – compared with the prospect of nothing happening

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Since the bubble economy burst at the beginning of the 1990s, Japan's gross government debt has expanded from 66 per cent of GDP to reach 245 per cent last year, as banks rely on increasing purchases of government bonds to make up for falling demand for loans from Japan's risk-averse businesses and individual borrowers. Photo: Reuters

Where, everyone wants to know, is it all going to end?

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With the world's major central banks printing money at unprecedented rates to fund governments' ballooning deficits, some investors are worried about a generalised collapse in the bond markets.

Others fret that looming hyperinflation will destroy the value of money, and preach that hard assets like commodities or property are the only reliable store of value.

Either way, large numbers of observers believe quantitative easing is a recipe for disaster. It will, they warn, all end in tears.

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Despite these fears, however, there are no signs either of a crisis of bond market confidence or of soaring inflation.

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