Paper written by Pascal Blanqué – Group Chief Investment Officer.

Today, investors have a unique opportunity to observe the spreading of a real virus alongside the viral nature of financial markets and the real economy. As Nobel Prizewinning economist Robert Shiller points out in his book, Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events, “stories and images are created around new economic events”1. In some cases, these stories are memories of the past and their spreading can have major implications regarding economic and financial markets.