Motivational speakers frequently explain that the Chinese word for “crisis,” or “wei-ji,” represents a combination of “danger” (wei-xian) and “opportunity” (ji-hui). That said, how much opportunity can be found in crisis after catastrophe after calamity? For instance, the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) have been responsible for staggering levels of market volatility for 24 months. Time and again, one or more [...] [...more]
Nearly every visitor to the CNBC microphone is making the same proclamation; that is, emerging markets can’t handle commodity price inflation as well as developed markets. The problem with this analysis is the conclusion that each is providing. Specifically, stock assets from the U.S, Japan and the Euro-zone will outperform the industrializing world. This has been true for the previous 6 [...] [...more]
State Street didn’t invent the concept of dividend-oriented exposure to emerging markets. The Matthews Fund family has been ultra-successful with its Matthews Asia Dividend Fund (MAPIX) for many years. What’s more, WisdomTree’s Emerging Market Equity Income ETF (DEM) tracks an emerging market dividend index and has been a mainstay since July of 2007. With that said, MAPIX focuses exclusively on [...] [...more]
