Analysis and opinion – Page 6
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AnalysisBritain’s brave new world
It will be vital for the UK to get its broad policy settings right as it embarks on the structural change of Brexit
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Opinion Pieces
Beyond green ambitions
Europe has lofty ambitions as it positions the European Green Deal as Europe’s growth plan for the coming decade and beyond
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Opinion Pieces
A precarious balance
Why has there not been another global financial crisis over the past decade? That is a more fruitful question than trying to predict when the next bout of market mayhem will hit.
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Opinion Pieces
Systemic risk may be underestimated
Underestimating the scale of systemic risk within the asset management industry is a mistake. For several years, macroprudential authorities including the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have argued that asset management activities are becoming systemically more risky.
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Opinion Pieces
Time for a positive impact on investing
The focus on sustainability and impact investing is expected to continue to grow, with potential regulatory and policy responses having wide-ranging investment implications
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Analysis
Investors react to EU Green Deal
PensionsEurope and EFAMA have reacted positively to a European Commission climate change-driven growth strategy
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Interviews
Interview: Miranda Carr, Haitong International
It is all too easy to forget that the markets are in a peculiar state. For example, nominal yields on US 10-year Treasuries have trended downwards since 1981. Real interest rates – that is, adjusted for inflation – have also trended downwards from about the same time. Estimates vary but there are also many trillions of euros worth of negative yielding debt.
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Features
Perspective: Carlo Cottarelli
Carlo Cottarelli, the Italian economist and former IMF director, says fixing the European economy will mean taking difficult decisions
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Features
GDP numbers spread fake news
GDP is a measure of economic activity rather than wealth creation. As such, it can give misleading signals about the health of an economy
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Features
Accounting Matters: Inflation measurement dilemma
If there is one issue that has seized the attention of defined benefit (DB) sponsors this reporting season, it is whether inflation should be measured using the consumer prices index (CPI) or the retail prices index (RPI). And Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) partner Alex Waite is clear why: “There is a formula [for RPI] and the formula is wrong. It is like having an error in a spreadsheet,” he says.
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Features
Letter From US: Concerns over common ownership unabated
No matter who wins the presidential election this November the issue of concentration of US corporate ownership by the Big Three money managers – BlackRock, Vanguard and SSGA – will not go away
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Analysis
Research: Back to basics will drive asset allocation
In the final article on a new report, Pascal Blanqué and Amin Rajan conclude that liquidity management has become vital as quantitative easing reaches a point of diminishing returns
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Opinion Pieces
Can we all be Canadian?
As we approach the 2020s, what have we learned about pension investing in the last 20 years?
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Opinion Pieces
The fiscal shift is no solution
There is a growing consensus that there needs to be a shift from extraordinary monetary policy to fiscal activism. Although quantitative easing (QE) will continue, there is a widespread recognition that its effects are diminishing.
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Opinion Pieces
Factor strategies should be based on scientific consensus
Investors should take note of the debate taking place within the factor investing industry. On one side, are those who support a purist approach to the definition of factors, arguing that factor strategies should be built using factor proxies that undergo rigorous scientific tests. Scientific Beta, the organisation linked to EDHEC Business School, is a vocal supporter of this approach.
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Opinion Pieces
The easy option
The Dutch social affairs’ minister Wouter Koolmees has spared millions of Dutch pensioners last month from having their pension payments cut in 2020, after the government granted pension funds a year’s grace period to restore coverage ratios.
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Features
Corporate reporting: Where were the parents?
Financial reports are normally dull affairs. Apart from the endless reams of paper detailing figures that few people understand, most of us just want to know a few key facts: whether the bottom line profit number is higher or lower than last year; whether the overall balance sheet can be summed up with a correspondingly big number – big is always better; and, critically, whether there will be a dividend.
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Book Review
Book review: Only the Best Will Do
Peter Seilern, the founder of Seilern Investment Management, has a reputation for investing in ‘quality growth companies.’ In reading his credo ‘Only the Best Will Do,’ you realise this career-long passion reaches almost religious dedication. Never mention ‘value investing’ in his presence.
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Features
Research: Pension investors seem to be losing faith in quantitative easing
In the first of two articles on a new survey of pension plans, Pascal Blanqué and Amin Rajan find that unconventional monetary policy has taken a toll on pension funds
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Opinion Pieces
Bold thinking needed
Muted and constrained economic growth, continued low yields and quantitative easing, combined with a poor investment return outlook, loom over Europe’s pension sector.
