Phooey on Financial Repression

Laurence Articles

Should the Fed raise interest rates? Are ultra-low interest rates good for investors because they drive up the prices of stocks and real estate, fattening household balance sheets? Or are zero rates an insidious tax, rearranging the terms of trade between borrowers and lenders, as well as between individuals and government, and making investors poorer over time? “Phooey on Financial …

How Emerging is Your Emerging Markets Manager? Arguing for a Bigger Allocation to Small Caps

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Most of today’s sophisticated investors genuinely believe in the merits of a permanent allocation to emerging markets. It’s easy to see why: Projected rates of high economic growth, along with secular demographic and consumption trends, combine to offer the potential for high returns to the patient, long-term investor. Moreover, challenging conditions associated with many developed markets have investors scouring the …

Can We Recover from the Public Debt Crisis? Of Course We Can

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“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” – attributed to Herbert Stein Is the world facing a public-debt crisis, or is too much debt just another headache we will muddle through? How can investors distinguish between countries that are likely to default or otherwise injure debtholders, such as through high inflation, and those that will resolve their debt …

After 70 Years of Fruitful Research, Why Is There Still a Retirement Crisis?

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Even in 1797, the 22-year-old author Jane Austen, patron saint of annuitants, understood why issuers of lifelong income promises might be unhappy about their side of the deal and why beneficiaries of such income guarantees are presumably happier. Austen understood time risk and longevity risk—the principal risks that individuals saving for retirement should be concerned about—better than most of today’s …