I'd say it tells us that genuine growth will become harder to come by in the months ahead and that, despite a hiatus in M&A activity in the first quarter, the takeover boom we predicted towards the end of last year could still come to pass, and will be led by American companies awash with cash they don't know what to do with.
That there is genuine speculation that someone could try and swallow a £90bn gorilla like Vodafone also suggests to me that markets are approaching an inflection point of irrationality, if only because the rational view of megamergers is that they are mostly value destructive.
As it happens, it was for far more prosaic reasons that we made Vodafone one of our 2013 Tips of the Year. Our bull case was essentially built on the fact that, while an especially challenged operator in an industry already beset with challenges, we decided that large, cash-generative companies trading at bargain basement prices - like Vodafone - were exactly the kind of investments that might do well in an environment in which decent yields were proving elusive.
That's a factor borne out in this week's stock screen - Algy Hall could only find five companies that fulfilled his long-term dividend growth criteria, down from 10 last year. And two of these, Centrica and BAT, hardly look cheap for the kind of companies they are. In contrast, Vodafone's shares were trading on a forecast PE ratio of 10 when we tipped them at 158p, when they were also yielding a prospective 6.5 per cent. They are no longer such a bargain, but still relatively cheap compared with other high-yielding shares.
But, as our investment trust columnist John Baron argues this week, investors should stick with income-bearing assets despite increasingly punchy valuations. I largely agree, because I like dividends - especially reinvested ones - and can't think of anything better to do with the profits if I were to cash in.
That may be a good reason for sticking with shares I already own, but it's not, however, a particularly good reason for buying more - it's simply too late to chase yield in the obvious places. And, as Chris Dillow explains this week, there are good reasons to be nervous of markets, not least the record high ratio of the FTSE 250 to FTSE 100, often a harbinger of poor performance ahead.
So while my cash may have been 'zirped', and is being gradually whittled away by inflation, if markets are heading for a fall it will at least buy me a lot more in six months' time. Markets, of course, may stay irrational for a while yet - but at least I will be solvent when reality does come calling.
