The US Federal Reserve surprised markets recently with a large and unexpected policy change. The new normal will be a US policy rate close to or just below 3%.

The idea that imputation refunds are an unfair, expensive rort is gaining acceptance in the community. The Labor proposal is not fair, nor much of a revenue earner. It's not even nuts. It is just wrong.

The arguments of supporters of Modern Monetary Theory have a grain of truth, but also rest on some fundamental misconceptions and have unpredictable, potentially serious consequences.

For most of the last 10 years, the world's major central banks have been creating significant amounts of cheap money, inflating several bubbles. Those bubbles are beginning to burst.

My key takeout was that perhaps markets entered an inflection point through 2018 and, accordingly (if they haven't already), investors need to think about how they position portfolios.

Only by making the effort to understand and align investment beliefs with values can we get a sharper understanding of our clients' true objectives and provide solutions that will really meet their needs.

Much macroeconomic analysis is very narrow in scope. ESG factors are ignored all together. A new indicator of national progress measures economic dynamism and progress on meeting ESG goals.

Banking and finance are an extreme case of governance and policy failures, where the abuse of power and lack of trust in institutions undermine capitalism and democracy.

The future is, by definition, uncertain, as are financial markets. To prosper in such an environment, we need to be emotionally agile in order to align our values and actions and, in turn, help investors achieve their financial goals.

Climate change is affecting countries, companies, assets and communities in a variety of ways. Good stewardship of client assets requires investors to consider these issues.

Human beliefs, biases and behaviours are central to the behaviour of financial markets, causing financial and economic instability to persist.

There may be enough positive factors to make this a relatively decent - albeit mediocre - year for the global economy. But a global growth-stall and sharp market downturn could come in 2020.

Two of the defining characteristics of the global investment landscape over the last 30 years are being reversed - globalisation (by economic nationalism) and finalisation (as we've reached peak debt).

Harry Markowitz called diversification "the only free lunch in finance". But it can’t be taken for granted as not all diversification is good. The answer will often lie with good rules of thumb.

Two recent papers provide timely insights on the market impact of behaviour that is detrimental to corporate reputation, and the impact of ever-growing passive investing on behaviour within organisations.

The former head of the Australian Stock Exchange recommends that dividend imputation should be abolished?

For most of the past decade, the growing spending power of China’s expanding middle class has fueled the global economy. Not so anymore.

Yes, it’s possible that we enter a recession in the not too distant future. But the best curve to forecast recessions still has a positive slope.

Machine learning algorithms are no match for the human brain when it comes to deciding how investment portfolios should be constructed.

As disruption transforms global economies, and markets become ever more efficient, effectively integrating material ESG factors will help build robust and resilient portfolios.