One speaker at the Money Show was a portfolio at Aberdeen Funds. They run global fixed income funds, among some of the more popular country ETFs.
Basically, his point was that we yanks (take that, Red Sox fans) are woefully underexposed to emerging markets. The big deal is that they are where the growth will be in the next several years.
I countered with risk. They do not have the same standards, I protested, therefore we don’t know if we will truly be paid.
As I wrote that line I thought – and our standards are good? After all, here is where sub prime, CDOs and other assorted junk was born. The fund manager put it another way, saying that the reporting in most places is indeed up to snuff – China excepted – so that worry goes way down.
I am not timing emerging markets in this post but given his view that inflation will not be the “print more money” problem there as it is here I do agree that owning emerging markets stocks and bonds for the long haul is a good idea.
