All Features articles – Page 34
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Features
Ahead of the curve: The psychology of contrarianism
Sociologists are likely to see contrarian investors as deviants, while psychologists may see them as healthy, ‘independent’ thinkers
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Features
Briefing: Sri Lanka after the bombings
The tragic Easter Sunday bombings have devastated tourism, a key plank of the economy
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Features
Pension promises: Hybrid plan accounting
Staff at the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are sketching out an approach to tackle so-called hybrid pension plan accounting
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IPE Quest Expectations Indicator: September 2019
Market sentiment has split in two. For the euro-zone and the US, there was a correction that did not affect trends and equities are still favoured. In the UK and Japan, sentiment is moving towards favouring bonds
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Features
Relative response to liquidity issues
Equity risk is a crucial portfolio exposure for pension funds and a key driver for long-term retirement outcomes for pension plans and their beneficiaries. Yet the structure of equity markets is in transition, which changes the way pension funds choose to allocate capital to them.
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Features
IPOs: Unicorn hunting
“Public interest in IPOs hasn’t been this high since the dot-com era of the late 1990s,” say analysts at UBS. Such popularity is stoking fears of a bubble in unicorns – privately-financed start-ups valued at over $1bn (€900m) taking listings.
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Features
Italy’s first-pillar obsession
Italy’s anti-establishment, eurosceptic coalition government has partly delivered on its promise to reform the pension system. ‘Dismantling’ the 2011 pension reform that curtailed benefits and raised the retirement age was key for both coalition partners – the Five Star Movement and the Lega. Previous governments had raised the retirement age.
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Features
ESG: Greenwashing under scrutiny
The term ‘greenwashing’ was reportedly coined by US environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 in an essay about hotels’ practice of putting up notices in hotel rooms to encourage guests to reuse towels. He accused them of making false claims about being environmentally responsible since they only adopted such practices when they reduced costs.
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Features
The Disneyworld trap
The remarkable reversal in the outlook for official interest rates over the past few months has received relatively little attention. Until recently it was widely accepted that rates could only move upwards. It looked almost certain that quantitative tightening (QT) would supplant quantitative easing (QE). Now the balance has reverted to further monetary accommodation.
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Features
EC’s expert group releases landmark climate taxonomy
The European Commission’s expert group on sustainable finance last month published its long-awaited final recommendations for a taxonomy of environmentally sustainable activities, which is at the heart of the EU executive’s plan to harness the finance sector for its fight against climate change.
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Features
Liquidity: Bad timing
Pension funds lose billions annually in badly timed trades in the capital markets
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Features
Perspective: Growing buzz around cannabis
Legalisation of cannabis raises ethical questions for some investors, while presenting an investment opportunity for others
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Features
Editor's Notes: A radical ambition
Last month’s three doorstop reports from the EU’s 35-strong technical expert group (TEG) on sustainable finance have the potential to radically repurpose capital markets.
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Features
Ahead of the curve: The bubbles to come
Market bubbles would not happen in a perfect world. But humans are not perfect and our economies are inherently unstable.
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Features
Dutch pensions agreement dodges the real issues
Social partners have agreed compromises relating to the state pension age and early retirement Many crucial aspects are yet to be confirmed and could still derail efforts to reform the system
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Features
Adequacy: the all-important question
How do you measure success when it comes to pension reform? In the UK, it is clear that the government measures the success of auto-enrolment by some numbers, but not others.
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Research: Passive investors, active owners
The rise of index investing raises important question about ownership rights and governance
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Features
Fixed income, rates, currencies: Nervousness abounds
The weak US non-farm payroll (NFP) data for May, far below forecasts, sent rates falling and stocks rising, on the supposition that it raised the likelihood of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. On the other hand, while risk markets cheered the prospect of easier money, the hardline approach taken by the US towards China, and China’s uncompromising responses are raising investor nervousness.