A Different Perspective
Asking the Right Questions
Einstein, Mourinho & Active Management
Albert Einstein said the eighth wonder of the world was compounding but it seems Jose Mourinho must have taken to reading Einstein’s work during his time off after his Chelsea sacking. The Manchester United manager continues to sarcastically refer to football pundits as ‘Einsteins’ and on Monday night he claimed ‘Liverpool are not the last wonder of the world’.
Now, the man who ran down the pitch to celebrate with fans, goaded Liverpool fans at Anfield after crushing their title hopes, stuck his finger in an opposing manager’s eye and berated a club doctor, has the audacity to call out Chelsea manager Antonio Conte for motivating his fans. The self-proclaimed special one’ should read this quote from Einstein:
“If A is a success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z. Work is X; Y is play; and Z is keeping your mouth shut.” Read More
Chinese GDP data surprises, in line with expectations…..
Chinese third quarter GDP data surprised everyone, coming out right in line with market expectations. The economy grew by an annual rate of 6.7% in the third quarter, providing comfort that Chinese authorities have steadied the ship. The central planners remain committed to their official growth range of 6.5% to 7% but at what cost? Read More
Boring pensions and the corporate mindset
Speaking last week at the annual conference for the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association, Sir Lenny Henry provided some sensible advice on how the pensions industry can communicate better with members.
Humour.
In a segment entitled, “CAN SHAKESPEARE HELP BRITAIN SAVE?”, the comedian said “Humour is a key element to everything we do” and “should be used to engage effectively with millennials to boost saving”.
“People remember things when they are funny because it engages with the brain”.
I think Lenny Henry is on the money. The pension industry is stiffly boring and the way the subject is communicated is simply a reflection of that. Read More
The Liverpool v United Rivalry
Mario Draghi’s press conference on Thursday is just white noise, the real event of the week is Monday night football at Anfield, home of Liverpool FC, when the Pool take on bitter rivals Manchester United.
Maybe it was the excitement of the clash, or the inspirational Bill Shankly videos I stayed up watching, but I was in the gym before my alarm even went this morning. The result could be make or break for how this week goes; for any clients meeting me this week, beware my enthusiasm may be impacted by the result tonight.
There are few bigger rivalries than this one. A reported 700 million people from around the world will tune in to see the game. I don’t think it matters what country these fans are from, true Liverpool fans hate Manchester United, and likewise United fans hate Liverpool. Read More
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 to suffer through weeks of media speculation on hypothetical scenarios, biased rhetoric from the various lobby groups, and a fresh dose of political jostling to influence voters.
In my mind, the attention payed to the annual budget is an exercise in wasted energy and a perpetuation of the short termism mindset that drives the behaviour of stakeholders in the economy.
For all the fanfare leading up to budget day, the decisions announced every year are typically at the margins. Do not expect any ground breaking announcements in terms of setting a long term vision for Irish society. Read More
Economic Growth and Asset Prices…..
The OECD released their latest Interim Economic Outlook, warning that “the global economy is projected to grow at a slower pace this year than in 2015, with only a modest uptick expected in 2017”. This is another case of groundhog day, for years now these institutions begin the year with overly optimistic growth forecasts which are later revised lower.
One might expect equity markets to be rattled by this phenomenon, surely at some point lower economic growth must be reflected in valuations? What we have seen is that the weaker economic outlook has been justification for the world’s major central bankers to continually loosen monetary policy. This has in turn pushed bond yields to record lows and risk assets like equity and property – now priced off much lower discount rates – ever higher.
Should we be concerned by the fact that risk assets have continued to move higher while global economic growth has continually fallen short of expectations? Have the world’s central banks stumbled upon a new form of alchemy where valuations have no link to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the main measure of economic growth? In other words, does GDP matter? Read More
Janet Yellen grunging to Nirvana
Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s iconoclastic album, Nevermind, September 24th 1991. The album catapulted the band and the genre of music into the commercial mainstream, something that was perhaps too much for front man Kurt Cobain to handle.
I may be wrong, but I doubt Janet Yellen, Chair of the US Federal Reserve, would count herself among the many fans of the legendary grunge band. Still, you never know. Janet would have only been 45 when the album was released. Econometrics by day, grunging by night! Read More
Retirement planning; the future is not that far away
In the film “Back to the Future”, Marty McFly transported from 1985 to the year 2015 in the Doc’s DeLorean time machine. The fact that they had flying cars in the future shows how far away 2015 seemed to those in 1985. Now while it is a disappointment that in 2016 we do not have flying cars, it does get me thinking about retirement planning and how people, including myself, tend to underappreciate how close the future actually is.
For example, take the year 2050. For me, 2050 sounds like something from a sci-fi film. Yet that’s the year I’ll reach the state retirement age of 68 (assuming all goes smoothly of course). 34 years into the future may sound far away, but it’s not from a savings perspective.
This is the real challenge for the pensions industry, effectively communicating to people the need to begin planning for retirement as early as possible in their working career. Unfortunately, the numbers would suggest people are thinking about what they need to retire much too late in their career. Many people face the cold hard reality of having inadequate savings when they retire to fund an enjoyable retirement. Read More
Key points from Janet Yellen’s speech
In April I wrote a blog “Central banks and the certain uncertainty paradox”, reminding everyone that these institutions are no more certain than anyone else about how economic conditions will unfold. Still, market participants continue to hang on every word from the leaders of the world’s major central banks.
Last week was no different. At the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, a forum for central bankers, policy experts and academics, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Janet Yellen gave a speech, entitled “The Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy Toolkit: Past, Present, and Future”, surprising market participants with the conviction of this remark on the possibility of interest rate hikes.
“Indeed, in light of the continued solid performance of the labor market and our outlook for economic activity and inflation, I believe the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months”.
However, less attention was paid to the caveat that followed: “Of course, our decisions always depend on the degree to which incoming data continues to confirm the Committee’s outlook. And as ever, the economic outlook is uncertain, and so monetary policy is not on a preset course. Our ability to predict how the federal funds rate will evolve over time is quite limited because monetary policy will need to respond to whatever disturbances may buffet the economy.” Read More
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 essence of experiencing life. Otherwise, life is just boring.
Of course, it is not always easy in the world we live, and making time for learning can be more difficult for some people. Still, too often the excuse of “I have no time” is just a cop out. The fact that there is a much watched reality TV industry tells me that plenty of people are happy to waste time. Don’t get me started on the social media junkies.
Now, for those who are open to learning but are just put off by the amount of time needed to actually learn something new, I recommend you watch the TedxTalk from Josh Kaufman, entitled “The first 20 hours – how to learn anything”. (YouTube link) With over 6 million views I am not the only one who has found it interesting.
Kaufman delivers an entertaining presentation, in which he shares how the experience of becoming a parent, and the time it required, inspired him to approach learning in a new way. Researching the question “How long does it take to inspire a new skill?” he found the common thread to be 10,000 hours, something which arose from studies on expert level performance. Read More
