Should investors worry about a 2008-style shock?

BACK in the summer of 2008 – or just before the great financial crisis – two unsettling financial trends collided: oil prices surged to almost US$150 a barrel, and private funds holding sub-prime mortgages reported mounting losses.

Investors might now feel some deja vu. In March, the US-Israeli attack on Iran has caused the oil price to see-saw violently. And while it remains well below that 2008 peak – especially in inflation-adjusted terms – it could still climb, given the record scale of disruption.

Meanwhile, bad news is also tumbling out from the non-banking world, this time from private credit funds.