This week's Fodder is a real mixed bag - portfolios, Africa, retirement spending, and risk profiling.

This week's Fodder NZ is a real mixed bag - portfolios, Africa, retirement spending, and risk profiling.

The current investment environment is arguably one of the toughest ever in which to build portfolios that deliver return and are robust into the future. There are a range of approaches that can be taken.

Setting an appropriate spending level is one of the most crucial tasks for retirees. Spend too much and risk utter penury down the track. Be too conservative and the client spends their remaining years in unnecessary hardship.

This week we bring you Dr Keith Suter's top-rated presentation on geo-politics and investing. Plus Marko Papic, Dr Robert Gay, Michael Furey, and Dan Farley.

This week we bring you Dr Keith Suter's top-rated presentation on geo-politics and investing. Plus Marko Papic, Dr Robert Gay, Michael Furey, and Dan Farley.

Many have spoken of the significant risks funds carry with Australian equities exposures. So I thought I'd check the evidence on the influence of equities on multi-asset portfolios.

Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. Central bankers seem intent on repeating their mistakes - especially when it comes to negative interest rates.

Investors are not accounting for the structural shifts taking place in East Asia that raise the probability of market-negative events. Asia- or EM-dedicated investors should hedge their risks by exposure to DM assets.

Economists and investors risk being blindsided by a global upswing that is already underway, financial historian Professor Niall Ferguson explained at PortfolioConstruction Forum Symposium 2016.

This week's Fodder is a special feature focused on the presentation given by internationally renowned economic and financial historian, Professor Niall Ferguson, at our recent PortfolioConstruction Forum Symposium 2016 program.

This week's Fodder is a special feature focused on the presentation given by internationally renowned economic and financial historian, Professor Niall Ferguson, at our recent PortfolioConstruction Forum Symposium 2016 program.

Symposium facilitates featured a stellar line up of 20 international and local experts - including special guest keynote, Professor Niall Ferguson, PhD, internationally renowned economic and financial historian - offering their expert, high conviction ideas to help build better quality investor portfolios.

Presented in a format that incorporates a game, this workshop explored the risk factors that drive retirement portfolio outcomes.

Central bankers successfully tamed inflation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Persistently low inflation is the new problem. With markets complacent about the inflation outlook, signs of inflation could create a scare.

With a growing number of central banks resorting to negative interest rates and the IMF acknowledging the risk of secular stagnation, investors could be forgiven for feeling nervous. Yet there is some evidence that the global economy may be at an inflection point.

With a growing number of central banks resorting to negative interest rates and the IMF acknowledging the risk of secular stagnation, investors could be forgiven for feeling nervous. Yet there is some evidence that the global economy may be at an inflection point.

Nearly every investor is confronting the challenge of how to invest in a low growth, low return environment. Investors must rethink portfolio construction.

The extreme thirst for yield has pushed the US high yield debt cycle into unchartered territory. It is approaching shakeout - with long/short opportunities amongst the beneficiaries of the current cycle.

China's credit-fuelled investment growth phase is reaching its end game and new sources of growth are needed to drive the economy.