By Michael Every of Rabobank

Thinking you can successfully forecast what markets will do is a fool's game. However, some recent financial market headlines were easy to forecast years ago. Markets didn't, and are still failing to join the dots between said headlines and what they imply for asset prices.

No markets-based forecasting skills were needed to predict: Yellen says China's rapid buildout of its green energy industry 'distorts global prices' (Reuters); Yellen to Warn China Against Flood of Cheap Green Energy Exports (New York Times); Janet Yellen says China's giant EV push 'distorts global prices' and hurts workers around the world (Fortune); Janet Yellen warns China against clean energy dumping (Financial Times). Instead, you had to recognize that:

1. Our global system was imbalanced, seeing subsidized industrial goods supply agglomerate in China, and debt-driven consumer demand in the Anglosphere – and this would end in a huge crisis. Which it did in 2008, catching most in markets by surprise.