UBS on China: In the late 1990s it was called the Greenspan put

UBS on China: In the late 1990s it was called the Greenspan put. The notion that investors in risk assets were safe because Greenspan (and the Fed) would be there to save them with lower rates. We now know where that way of thinking got us. It was this kind of complacency, underwritten by the Greenspan put, that lead to the crisis in 2008. This is exactly what the Chinese authorities want to avoid. By awakening investors from their complacent slumber and doing some tidying up of risk positions now, a bigger clean-up can hopefully be avoided in the future. The decision not to bail out a defaulting solar company last week, is one way of doing this. Widening the band around which the Yuan is allowed to trade is another. The authorities are making it clear to market participants investing in China is not a one-way bet.