Fresh-faced financial reporters are swiftly disabused of the idea that there are “safe havens” in financial markets. With one eye on the word count, a grizzled sub-editor will cut the extraneous word and growl “All havens are safe.” Assets that retain their value during a market downturn (gold, the Swiss franc, the Japanese yen) should be known by the one-word moniker “havens”, the sub-editor will insist—“safe havens” have no place in newspaper copy.
