'Future-proof portfolios’ are entirely achievable. Given the complexity of developing retirement investment strategies, a ‘whole-of-portfolio’ approach and framework is warranted to achieve better long-term outcomes for clients.

If US bond rates go higher from here, it is likely to be in response to something we don't yet know, rather than what is already out there. Markets are not nearly as dumb as many suggest.

Re-evaluate the conventional assumption that owning government bonds is inherently defensive and risk diversifying. At best, it's an expensive choice and at worst, it won't work.

The sustainability of global growth depends largely on the US and China. One hopes that someone close to Trump can turn him around before his policies derail the world's long-awaited recovery.

Game changer or new danger? The rise of passive funds throughout this decade is recalibrating the traditional core-satellite portfolio model.

There is often confusion about income in retirement. In most cases, some income measures won't give retirees enough to spend, resulting in a lower standard of living than they could be enjoying.

The euro was supposed to bring shared prosperity, which would enhance solidarity and advance the goal of European integration. In fact, it has done just the opposite, slowing growth and sowing discord.

President Trump's protectionist threats have raised the risks of a serious trade war, the first in over 80 years. It is assumed that this would materially impact US growth - but is that the case?

Investors are increasingly questioning the continued relevance of bonds in their portfolios. But bonds offer enhanced diversification qualities during times of low growth, low inflation and market uncertainty.

The time has come for national governments around the world to start issuing their debt in a new form, linked to their countries' resources.

It should come as no surprise that enthusiasm for economic and financial globalisation has faltered. Building consensus around a revised unifying paradigm will not be easy.

We are moving ever closer to the date when payment for today's recovery will fall due. Recent capital market gyrations suggest that awareness of the inevitable reckoning is already beginning to dawn.

The general uptrend in the broader equity market seems set to continue given economic data globally remains robust and central banks very accommodating. Given divergent risks, investors should focus more than ever on uncovering sources of idiosyncratic alpha, rather than relying on momentum or passive beta.

Every generation or so, things (in the economics world) break. We're probably at or close to one of those once-in-a-generation moments. Watching monetary indicators is key.

Headlines seeming to portend political instability and chaos have not prevented stock markets from soaring. What gives?

However tempting it may be to focus our wishes on our own immediate desires, it is imperative this year that investors' wish lists take into account the big economic and policy picture.

You know it's time to worry when the conservative Republican chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations warns openly that Trump could start World War III.

This week's Fodder: Bob Gay - economic tools not keeping pace; Stiglitz - market economies can temper excesses of capitalism, globalisation; Will Jackson - portfolio rebalancing; Aaron Minney – retiree spending; Samantha Lamb - case for global credit

In the last decade, investor interest in long-horizon outcomes was rare and when it prevailed, it was severely tested by events. The long-term was viewed as opaque and uncertain. It's amazing how attitudes change when new opportunities emerge.

In Fodder: Farrelly - the government's taxing ad; Kaletsky - equity markets more likely to rise; Rajan - welcome back long-term investing; Toohey - significantly faster wage growth ahead; Buenneke - shrinking global public equity market