No one is paid to front run the apocalypse

THAT fund managers are rewarded for hugging the benchmarks they track is a big reason behind the otherwise puzzlingly mild reaction of financial markets to rising tensions and threats between nuclear powers the United States and North Korea.

No one, and I mean this in the nicest, most humane way, no one is paid to help clients avoid the kind of massive stock market downdraft we’d see if the two went to war. Besides being, like the rest of us, badly positioned to predict what will happen, fund managers face disproportionately large career and portfolio risks if they try to sell up to prepare for a war, making going along for the ride the safest, easiest option.