The Cost of Comfort

By Christopher Pavese Wow. That escalated quickly. After years of head fakes and empty threats by members of the EU, investors had been lulled into complacency a la Public Enemy – Don’t Believe The Hype. Whoops. But now that Britain has let the genie out of the bottle, that false sense of security has been shattered. And as a result, investors are fleeing risk assets in favor of safety. They would be wise to remember that short-term comfort often comes at a high long-term expense. Defensive, high-quality equities are now trading at extremes last seen during the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis and the 2011-2012 European Crisis (chart…