This week's Fodder kicks off with three perspectives on China, before turning to the challenge of finding skill in active managers, plus a new "Undiscovered Fund".

This week's Fodder kicks off with 3 perspectives on China, before turning to the challenge of finding skill in active managers, plus a new "Undiscovered Fund".

China is a glass both half full and half empty. It will continue to grow and become a great superpower, but its future growth rate will be significantly lower than President Xi's "new normal" 6% forecast.

The challenge in finding differential skill among active managers reflects a surfeit, not a dearth, of skill. This is the major lesson of the paradox of skill. As Napoleon was reported to say, "Ability is nothing without opportunity."

In Fodder this week - GaveKal & Hartwich on the Eurozone plus Michael Kitces provides an improved version of the 4% rule.

In Fodder this week - GaveKal & Hartwich on the Eurozone plus Michael Kitces provides an improved version of the 4% rule.

As we have just witnessed, it took an enormous effort to keep Greece in the eurozone. In the end, Europe could deal with the problem. For other members, such propping up will not always be possible. What happens next in France, Spain and Italy may well turn out to be more worrying than anything we have seen around Athens so far.

A simple ratchet-style "safe" withdrawal rate approach, where spending is increased by 10% any time the portfolio rises more than 50% above its starting value, beats the traditional 4% rule, generating equal or better retirement spending, even while being conservative enough to not require a spending cut in the event of a market pullback in the future.

This week, Chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen has repeatedly said it is likely the Fed will lift its policy rate at its September meeting. It will be a minor adjustment but a momentous event. In short, I expect the first 100 basis points of Fed normalisation will have relatively little effect on long-term rates - with a critical caveat.

Despite all the negative ink that's been spilt over the recent collapse in Chinese equities, we continue to believe that a year from now there will be more marginal buyers of Chinese equities than today.

Whatever the EU now decides at its summit on Sunday (the umpteenth, by my count), it will be costly. It is unlikely to work. And it was totally avoidable.

This is a special interest subsection of our wider Perspectives library in which we present research and opinion about lifecycle investing issues.

This week's Fodder is a mixed bag covering markets, strategies and investing with Jack Gray, Tim Farrelly and GaveKal

This week's Fodder is a mixed bag covering markets, strategies and investing with Jack Gray, Tim Farrelly and GaveKal

Understanding PETS - Political, Environmental, Technological/Scientific, Social - factors is relevant, if not crucial, to us as citizens. But to what extent are they relevant or important to investing?

The classic 4% rule holds withdrawals at 4% of the initial value of the portfolio at retirement. A great deal of recent research has focused on strategies that adjust withdrawals depending on investment experience.

We hear this one a lot. It's incredibly misleading. Bank hybrids offer better than bond returns with higher risk, and lower than equity returns with much lower than equity risk.

In this week's Fodder Dom McCormick comments on the IOOF media frenzy plus GaveKal on Greece & 2 geopolitical pieces from Mohamed El-Erian & Bill O'Grady.

Will low interest rates be with us for decades? Or are higher rates ahead? Our Academy panel argues the case for "lower for longer" versus "back to higher" - and the implications for portfolios.

In this week's Fodder Dom McCormick comments on the IOOF media frenzy plus GaveKal on Greece & 2 geopolitical pieces from Mohamed El-Erian & Bill O'Grady