Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 662
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Features
'Compromise of a compromise'
After years of debate and some false starts, in the end the European directive on occupational pensions came down to a “compromise of a compromise” worked out between a few key players meeting just before the crucial vote at the European Parliament. At stake was, in the words of European ...
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Features
Date with EM debt
Question: “Which asset class returned 15.1% during the last year, 11.3% per year for each of the last two years, and 13.2% per year for the 11 years from March 1992 until March 2003?” (Merrill Lynch). Answer: Non-G7 sovereign debt. Sound appealing? Possibly. Now if we said those returns were ...
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Features
Waiting for the peace dividend
It goes without saying that the aftermath of the US-led war against Iraq is the dominant theme for the US markets and economy. Or does it? For some market participants, while seeing a post-war rally, the pre-war picture still holds and the same problems remain. If unemployment is anything to ...
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Features
War against deflation
Although it may not currently be fashionable to admit it: we are fundamentalists. This relates to our investment and research, not ideological, approach. The first step in every investment decision is the analysis of the key long-term drivers of an investment. We then confront our findings with the consensus view. ...
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Features
The pendulum never stops half way
Are we going to see a double-dip recession? Will deflation hit? Surely the equity markets can’t get much worse, with the US and UK indices nearly halving (not to mention Germany which has gone down by nearly 75%)? After all, how sustainable is a situation where the dividend yield on ...
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Features
Avoiding the 'DB killer'
Agreement on the translation of IAS 19 accounting standards for Dutch pension funds looks set to allay fears about how the standards might affect the Netherlands’ predominantly defined benefit (DB) pension plans. According to Jeroen Steenvoorden, director of the OPF, interested parties, including the OPF, have been talking to and ...
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Features
Dutch funds go deeper into red in 2002
Dutch pensions funds results for 2002 do not make for pretty reading, as the negative returns for 2002 following on a dismal 2001 have pushed some funds below the high watermark line of the strong buffer reserves designed to absorb the severest of market shocks. The unprecedented declines heralded in ...
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Features
And the 'Blue Ribbon' answer...
We propose a more pragmatic direction that leverages the best practices adopted by corporate pension funds. If anything, the mistake made by many reformers was to confuse ‘corporatisation’ with sprivatisations. In our forthcoming book ‘Rethinking Pension Reform’ (Cambridge University Press), we propose a ‘permanent’ solution to the problem of maintaining ...
