David Fuller's view A generalised loss of confidence in the capitalist system and a broad distrust of finance may turn out to be a promising secular backdrop for equity markets. Particularly when joined by miserabilist reporting such as Institutional Investor's recent pessimistic corker, "The Equity Culture Loses Its Bloom". This is all investment strategy out of the rear view mirror. The time to be sceptical of equities is after a decade-long boom, not after a lost decade during which stocks went essentially nowhere. But when there is a world-weary distrust of financiers and most things economic, indeed real concern over the longevity and vitality of the capitalist system, there is also a profound contrarian boost for equities being created. Not all stocks will thrive, of course, just as not all government bond markets are worthy of investment. But whereas the bond market has been manipulated to hell and back through the arcane magic of quantitative easing, the stock market remains just that - an open market free of much government constraint where the winners generate rewards for the optimistic realists who can identify them.