Thus The Wall Street Journal today. “Buoyant financial markets are out of kilter with the shaky global economic and geopolitical outlook, the Bank of International Settlements said in its annual report just published,” elaborates the newspaper. Well spotted. The only surprise is that this assessment comes a few years late, for the buoyant markets and the shaky economic and geopolitical outlook have been with us ever since the onset of the financial crisis. The growing optimism of the last few years needs explaining, to be sure. The best thing I can come up with is that the new rich have no idea what to do with the mind-boggling fortunes amassed during the crisis. With interest rates hovering around zero, or even below zero, they cannot but look for opportunities in financial markets. And the central bankers should be the first to understand the baffling buoyancy in question, for it is no-one but themselves who have fomented it by printing money at full tilt and thrashing interest rates. It can only be hoped that the next annual report of the Bank of International Settlement will look inwards rather than outwards. By then, the global economic and geopolitical outlook will be even more worrying, anyhow.