There was a time when the world had (somewhat) free markets. Then Lehman failed as the inevitable culmination of a credit bubble that was second in size and severity only to the one being blown currently, and the central planners took over, converting equity, bond and FX markets into nothing but monetary policy tools dominated by central banks. Below is a great summary of how parallel to SkyNet's HFT takeover of stock trading, the central planners conducted their own not so stealthy take over of all capital markets. The chart is open-ended. Expect much more intervention by the Big 4 in the months and years ahead as the circular nature of increased central bank intervention leading to less faith in financial markets leading to increased private sector deleveraging leading to increased-er central bank intervention and so on, accelerates.
Meet the 4 unelected dictators of the no longer even pretending to be free "developed" world.
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Source: Goldman Sachs