Encouraging the pursuit of financial independence in a safe and sustainable way
Investing is merely a means to an end. It is the toolkit that we use to help our clients meet their objectives. We seek to become better at it to increase the likelihood of those objectives being met. Ultimately, we have a duty to act on behalf of our clients, and to do that the … Continue reading Our passion for investing
Let’s say you’ve just taken out a mortgage and moved into a new home. What’s the worst that could happen? A fall in the value of the property you just bought? Unless you’re planning to sell it soon, a fall in price hardly matters. What’s much worse is if you lose your job. Then you … Continue reading Your job is an asset too
Put money, finance and investment aside for one moment. In every walk of life, there are three constraints that are universal and unavoidable. They will constrain people in different ways and to different extents, but the universal constraints will impact us all. It’s probably fair to say that as a general rule, having more of … Continue reading The universal constraints on everything and everyone
Investable themes: Technology, healthcare technology, education technology, leisureThe structural headwinds against inflation are strong. The world economy will have to adjust to a new normal of low and negative inflation, rather than fighting against nature. Globalisation, demographics, and an excess of savings over investment have caused the ‘natural’ rate of interest – the rate at … Continue reading Opinion: Inflation is not what it used to be
A handful of snippets for the sustainable investor. Data from the Rainforest Action Network, and reported by the FT in the chart below, showed the extent of banks’ financing for fossil fuels globally from 2016 to 2019. Former Labour MP Chuka Umunna will join JP Morgan as the head of its European ESG advisory unit. … Continue reading Sustainability digest
Competition law, or antitrust policy as it’s known in the US, exists for the purpose of preventing companies from abusing their power at the expense of consumers. It generally is supposed to act in the interest of the public, and so often has the primary aim of protecting the consumer. For a simple example, consider … Continue reading Why do regulators sometimes want to break up large companies?
Did the Fed inadvertently shift to a fairer monetary policy regime?There’s a lot going on here, but bear with us. Before their shift to ‘flexible average inflation targeting’ (FAIT) last year, the policy of the US Federal Reserve was to target inflation of around 2% and to minimise deviations from ‘full’ employment. That policy had … Continue reading Will the Fed’s new policy approach help to close the black-white employment gap?
Investable theme: energy transition, clean energy, technology, cryptoassetsWe have seen structural breaks in the way the world works many times before, but the new millennium has brought with it a perfect storm. The world is going through transition, and it is multi-faceted. Three transitions will dominate the next decade:1. The energy transition2. The money transition3. … Continue reading Opinion: Global transition is underway, and it is multi-faceted
Over the 149 years to 2020, equities (in the US) outperformed US government bonds in: 63% of rolling one-year periods, 68% of rolling three-year periods, 73% of rolling five-year periods, and 86% of rolling ten-year periods.The job of a professional active asset allocation fund manager is to – amongst other things – shift capital back … Continue reading Opinion: Equities outperform bonds
Investable themes: Real estate, physical alternatives, technology, goldEventually, something must be done about the global debt burden. There are only four ways that debt can be reduced: growth, inflation, currency devaluation or default. Only growth is truly attractive, so in the absence of sufficient growth, anything else constitutes a reckoning. Given headwinds from demographics and … Continue reading Opinion: The global debt reckoning
To the pound 