All risk, no reward

Don't be fooled by tight spreads in emerging markets, warns Amy Falls. Just because you're not being paid to take on risk doesn't mean there isn't any

Morgan Stanley recently hosted a conference entitled Thriving with Risk. Having been asked to make concluding remarks, I found myself in the unusual position of summing up the thoughts of a host of high-powered, intelligent and, incidentally, predominantly female speakers. The one thing we all knew was that we weren't getting paid for risk, particularly credit risk.

But this is nothing new. Investors, economists, strategists and even journalists have been fretting about collapsed risk premia and