Crédit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2012

The "Crédit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2012" was released last week, which deserves a rapid posting. The yearbook highlights three subjects:

The real value of money
Whoever is determined in thinking a research paper endorsed by a major financial institution can only by a Siren song supporting fiat currency, may need to reconsider.

Just a quote from the introduction:

With international efforts to avert recession, fears have grown about the monetary policy and debt overhang. Sentiment fluctuates between deflationary concerns and inflationary fears and the demand for safe-haven assets has surged. This article examines the dynamics and impact of inflation and examines how equities and bonds have performed under different inflationary conditions.

Currency matters

Investing in global equity rather than just domestically reduces portfolio volatility. Equities tend to outperform following periods of currency weakness, which suggests that more unhedged cross border exposure can be desirable at those times. Contrary to equity, cross border bond investment can add to portfolio risk primarily through currency exposure.

Measuring Risk Appetite

... attitudes towards risk oscillate periodically from over-exhuberance to excessive pessimism and back again. In Feb 1998, Crédit Suisse lauched the Global Risk Appetite Index ...

A round-up

Best wishes for 2011.

I started this blog back in November 2009. Initially I mainly intended to keep track of valuable postings that otherwise would get lost and snowed under on different forums.

Ambition grew over time as I realized I slowly gathered an audience. This isn’t evident, considering that the blog is bilingual and initially most postings were written in Dutch for a local public. I’m not posting on highly popular or controversial topics either: asset classes less covered by mainstream media.

There’s more blogs covering mainly gold or related assets (you find them in the right side margin). The more popular ones mainly convey a political message criticizing monetary policy and/or gold price manipulation.