"MY CONFIDENCE HAS been shot," jokes JPMorgan’s managing director and head of European credit research, Stephen Dulake, despite the fact that the world’s top 100 largest asset managers by AUM ranked Dulake and his team as number one for overall credit strategy in Euromoney’s revised take on its 2011 fixed-income research survey. With an end to the European sovereign debt crisis nowhere in sight and fears of market contagion growing day by day, even the best strategists are doubting their previously held beliefs. "We’ve been operating under the assumption that we live in a world where policymakers will muddle on through," Dulake says. "However, the muddle has grown exponentially and these assumptions are now being challenged." Investors around the world are growing wary of the EU’s ability to stabilize the European economy. "Markets are getting frustrated with this level of procrastination and the fact that we have yet to reach a sustainable equilibrium in Greece," says Dulake. Despite the announcement of the approaching summit, the cost of insuring European sovereign debt rose on July 18 to a record high, and Italy’s 10-year bond yield jumped 12 basis points the same day.