Pension Pulse

Ted Carmichael recently posted a year-end review on his Global Macro blog, The Biggest Global Macro Misses of 2016 (added emphasis is mine): As the year comes to a close, it is time to review how the macro consensus forecasts for 2016 that were made a year ago fared. Each December, I compile consensus economic and financial market forecasts for the year ahead. When the year comes to a close, I take a look back at the prognostications and compare them with what we know actually occurred. I do this because markets generally do a good job of pricing in consensus views, but then move -- sometimes dramatically -- when the consensus is surprised and a different outcome transpires. When we look back, with 20/20 hindsight, we can see what the surprises were and interpret the market movements the surprises generated. Of course, the biggest forecast misses of 2016 were not in the economic indicators and financial markets, but in the political arena . The consensus views of political p...

Gillian Tan of Bloomberg View reports, Pension Funds Should Look North For Inspiration : When it comes to at least one type of investing, U.S. pension funds should take a (maple) leaf out of their Canadian counterparts' playbook. Despite being among the largest private equity investors, U.S. pension funds such as the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System have been slow to transition from a hands-off approach to one that involves actively participating in select deals, a feature known in the industry as direct investing. A More Direct Approach The benefits of direct investing are lower (or sometimes no) fees and the potential to enhance returns, and that makes it an attractive proposition. But so far, U.S. pension funds have been pretty content as passive investors for the most part, writing checks in exchange for indirect ownership of a roster of companies but without outsize exposure to any (click ...

Ray Dalio, Chairman and CIO at Bridgewater Associates, wrote a comment on LinkedIn, Reflections on the Trump Presidency, One Month after the Election (added emphasis is mine): Now that we’re a month past the election and most of the cabinet posts have been filled, it is increasingly obvious that we are about to experience a profound, president-led ideological shift that will have a big impact on both the US and the world. This will not just be a shift in government policy, but also a shift in how government policy is pursued. Trump is a deal maker who negotiates hard, and doesn’t mind getting banged around or banging others around. Similarly, the people he chose are bold and hell-bent on playing hardball to make big changes happen in economics and in foreign policy (as well as other areas such as education, environmental policies, etc.). They also have different temperaments and different views that will have to be resolved. Regarding economics, if you haven’t read Ayn Rand l...

Chelsey Dulaney of the Wall Street Journal reports, Dollar Surges as U.S. Prepares for Higher Rates : A dollar surge that began after the U.S. election has accelerated with this week’s Federal Reserve interest-rate increase, pointing to a possible reckoning in coming months for economies around the globe. The WSJ Dollar Index of the dollar’s value against 16 major trading partners hit a 14-year high Thursday, reflecting expectations that the Fed will pick up the pace of rate increases next year as the U.S. economy gains momentum . A sharp increase in the dollar stands to have long-lived economic consequences, potentially hampering a U.S. earnings recovery and making the trillions in dollar-denominated debt around the world more expensive to pay back . But the dollar’s renaissance this year already is rippling through global financial markets, sending currencies from Japan and India to Turkey and Brazil tumbling and presenting companies, consumers and governments in those nat...