Chart of the week: steer clear of Ireland's optimistic 100-year bond

Ireland has issued a 100-year bond priced to yield 2.35%. "Money has to go somewhere", as Lex notes in the Financial Times, and, in this era of ultra-low interest rates, a decent yield is proving more and more elusive. But buying this bond is only remotely justifiable if we face "a century of not particularly inflationary growth and governments with iron discipline" completely unlike the last 100 years, in other words.

As the chart of British gilt yields (see chart) over three centuries suggests, economies are volatile, governments spendthrift, and inflation can hardly be expected to spend decades at a time in a coma.

Statistic of the week

That was the lowest quarterly figure for IPOs since the first three months of 2009, with only three companies eclipsing $100m. It was also the first quarter since mid-2009 where cancelled listings exceeded successful deals.

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But the market rebound since mid-February, along with a 20% bounce in an index tracking the last two years' biggest IPOs, bodes well for a recovery in flotations.