In Fodder this week, we're pleased to launch the first of a series of online "Philosophy Lectures". Aimed at helping you firm up your philosophy on key portfolio construction issues, this first lecture features Lazard's Philipp Hofflin on the key tenets of value investing and the debates surrounding it. The aim is to prompt you to consider, confirm and communicate your own philosophy on value investing. Plus, Linda Jakobson explains why China's ambitions to dominate the region will be thwarted. Jim O'Neill (of "BRIC" fame) discusses oil prices. Charles Sampford, Jack Gray and Clare Payne weigh in on values and investing. And RARE Infrastructure's Charles Hamieh debunks the myths around the risk of investing in EM infrastructure.
All the best for another great week's continuing education - Graham
P.S. Registration opens next week for Markets Summit 2018 "Changing Gears" (13 Feb) and Finology Summit 2018 "Where investing meets investors" (14 Feb)

QUOTE OF THE WEEK...

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers - Thomas Jefferson

LATEST...

Philosophy - Strategies
Philosophy Lecture: Value investing
Value investing has been successful but it requires discipline and a long-run horizon - and disagreement remains over whether the value premium will persist. What's your philosophy?
Philipp Hofflin, Lazard Asset Management | 4.00 CE | More

Markets
China will be the dominant power in the region by 2027
Xi Jinping would like to oversee China's rise to regional dominance. However, the US, Japan and India will not allow China alone to dominate the region.
Linda Jakobson, China Matters | 0.25 CE | More

Markets
The abnormality of oil
There is evidence to suggest that the uptick in global growth and developments in Saudi Arabia will push the price of oil as high as $80 in the coming year.
Jim O'Neill | More

Philosophy - Ethics
Values, ethics and investing
Values play a vital role in investment and business decisions - and, increasingly, investors care about more than just financial returns.
Clare Payne, Charles Sampford, Jack Gray | 1.00 CE | More

Strategies
EM Infrastructure is too risky for defensive equity portfolios
Emerging markets infrastructure plays a powerful role in a portfolio. However many investors make assumptions around the risk of these markets and ignore them to their detriment.
Charles Hamieh, RARE Infrastructure | 0.50 CE | More

RECENTLY...

Markets
The curious case of the missing defaults
For the past two centuries, a "double bust" (in commodities and capital flows) has led to a spike in sovereign defaults. Yet they have risen only modestly since the peak in commodity prices and global capital flows around 2011.
Carmen M. Reinhart, Harvard University | More

Markets
Phillips Curve confusion
During the past three months, a salient topic of debate has been whether the so-called Phillips Curve is relevant in today's disinflationary environment. The debate is important to investors.
Woody Brock, SED | More

Markets | Finology
The Cocaine Brain and other biases
Human beings are subject to behavioural biases, which negatively affect their ability to make rational choices. These behavioural biases create market inefficiencies that active investment managers can exploit to generate alpha.
Stuart Rae, AllianceBernstein | More

Strategies | Investing
E + S + G factors all add up to better performance
Ensuring your investment process has the flexibility to incorporate sustainability factors all adds up to improved longer term portfolio performance outcomes.
Amanda McCluskey, Stewart Investors | 0.50 CE | More

Philosophy - Ethics
Research Review: Personal values and professionalism
What influence do personal values have on our behaviour, as individuals? And how do those values interact with professional standards and ethics?
Will Jackson, Portfolio Construction Forum | 1.50 CE | More

Good Summary
...Framing the household balance sheet as a consideration of 'possibilities' is interesting. Taking today's balance sheet and examining it against future liabilities, specifically the probability of satisfying each liability is the least practiced element of retirement planning...
Brent Bevan, Commonwealth Bank of Australia | More

China madernity??
What a load of codswallop!!!
Craig Offenhauser, Charter Pacific Securities | More

Markets | Finology
The moral identity of economic man
Two recent books indicate that a quiet revolution is challenging the foundations of economics, promising radical changes in how we view many aspects of organisations, public policy, and even social life.
Ricardo Hausmann, Harvard Kennedy School | 1 comment | More

Strategies
The optimal shape of retirement planning
A recent research paper that likens the three main retirement planning approaches to shapes provides an interesting way to think about three different retirement planning approaches. In the end, the best option may incorporate all three.
Michael Kitces, Nerd's Eye View | 0.50 CE | 1 comment | More

Strategies | Investing
Research Review: More on portfolio construction
A recent paper that addresses one of the most pressing issues facing the financial community - how to construct long-term investment portfolios to best fit the needs of those saving for retirement - questions the appropriateness of many commonly used techniques.
Ron Bird, University of Technology Sydney | 1.00 CE | More

Strategies
Backgrounder: The rise of impact investing
As some institutional investors build internal impact investing capabilities, the inclusion of impact investments in portfolios may be on the cusp of becoming mainstream.
Will Jackson, Portfolio Construction Forum | More

Strategies
Managing carbon exposure is essential for better risk-adjusted returns
Managing carbon risk within portfolios is increasingly a decision integral to risk management and the pursuit of superior long-term risk-adjusted returns.
Domenico Giuliano, Magellan Asset Management | 0.50 CE | More

Positive but maybe a little too rosy?
... I'm not sure how many fund researchers or advisers would refer to -0.3% pa and mostly certainly not -0.6% pa excess returns for 10 years as falling into the category of 'superb job'.
Brent Bevan, Commonwealth Bank of Australia | More

Plenty of disruption and growth
Tim, great to see further proof that active management is alive...
Jonas Daly, Bennelong Funds Management | More

Nice positive stuff, Tim
I tend to think this SPIVA report (which accounts for survivorship bias) has actually introduced some survivorship bias in this piece of analysis...
Michael Furey, Delta Research & Advisory | More

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