Asking the Right Questions
Annual budget sideshow is just a distraction
“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes Another year, another budget! This time every year in Ireland the focus moves to the budget announcement of the Irish government. We are forced…
The “20 Hours” Learning Challenge
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi I have tried but I can’t find a better quote than the above when it comes to learning. For me, the pursuit of knowledge is the…
What do you want?
Over the weekend I watched Good Will Hunting, without doubt my favourite movie. I must have watched it well over a hundred times at this stage. The movie which earned two Oscars, Best Original Screenplay for writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and Best…
Words of Wisdom from Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali once said that “It’s not bragging if you can back it up”. As the world reflects on the passing of a legend, and his 74 years on this planet, it is fair to say that Ali lived up to his claim “I…
Thoughts from the London Value Investor Conference
On Thursday of last week I attended the annual “London Value Investor Conference”. This is the fifth year for the conference since it was established in 2012, of what can only be described as an investment marathon of a day with fourteen investment managers…
The Investment Challenge: In One Chart
If I was asked for one chart to sum up the current investment environment, the below would be it. This chart shows the German yield curve, which plots the yields on German government bonds with maturities ranging from 1 month to 30 years. The…
Interview Series: Colombia as a place to invest
As I have mentioned previously, I met with officials from Colombia’s Finance Ministry during my trip to the country in March. While the focus of our meeting was on the fundamentals of the Colombian economy, I was keen to learn more about the specifics of…
Interview Series: 11 Questions for the Minister of Finance
Ireland was the fastest growing economy in Europe in 2015, ranked by percentage change in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the economic indicator which captures the value of all goods and services in an economy. While there has also been a major improvement across a…
2016, we go again!
Well, we go again. Another year, new resolutions, new goals or perhaps for some a preference to just drift and lament what ‘they would do different, if they only had the time, or the money’. Whatever your current situation or perception of the world,…
Long Dated Bond Funds: Beware of the Risk!
Recently, we have seen more pension scheme members expressing an interest in long dated government bond funds, ironically just as yields have started turning. While investors are clearly being attracted by the returns of the last 3 years, the near 10% decline over the last…
