Bank debt levels “outrageous”: Stanford professor
In 1840 equity funded more than 50 per cent of bank assets in the US, now it’s around 7 per cent. Banks would never lend to a business with no equity.
Investors discuss how technological change and the new green economy is re-pricing assets in infrastructure, as well as the trend to substitute fixed income with infrastructure debt. But investors should not to lose sight of traditional infrastructure characteristics in their quest to tap new trends. Predictable cashflows and downside protection remain central.
In 1840 equity funded more than 50 per cent of bank assets in the US, now it’s around 7 per cent. Banks would never lend to a business with no equity.
In the United Kingdom there are around 1.5 million employers, and it is estimated more than half of them do not offer a pension to their employees. The pension system in the UK is fragmented. There are more than 10,000 mostly defined-benefit plans and, unless you are a government employee or in the high-income bracket,
It seems all predictions for 2012 are predicated on the assumption that the mess in Europe doesn’t hit the global economic fan. But as money managers gaze into their crystal balls at what 2012 might hold, emerging markets, particularly Asia, seem a bright spot amid the gloom.
Economists hate price and wages controls. They distort the natural forces of markets and usually result in pent-up demand and/or supply which will be unleashed at a later stage as well as a range of unexpected distortions. Investors, too, should hate them.
Some sort of shape is starting to take place, post-global crisis, as to how the biggest, longest-term investors are spending their money. If the endowment model was the one to follow for the past 20 years, the sovereign wealth fund model may be the one to follow for the next.
Norges Bank Investment Management is leading a consortium of more than 130 institutions globally in a disclosure project aimed at providing investors with a comprehensive assessment of the water risks of the companies they invest in.
Featured Story