2016 has started poorly for the global economy - and horribly for markets. A number of negative themes are ascendant, whereas the positive ones are either pausing or petering out.

Do not be distracted by conventional presumptions about the Fed’s tightening cycle and interest rates. The ultimate bogeyman of this investment cycle will be credit quality and the warning sign will be when banks tighten lending standards.

With the Federal Reserve today moving away from zero with a 25 basis point move, has anything changed my view that bond yields will stay lower for longer? I don't think it has. 2016 should be a very interesting market environment

In Fodder NZ this week - Markets and Managers with Mohamed El-Erian, Woody Brock, Bob Huebscher, Michael Furey and Ashley O'Connor

In Fodder this week - Markets and Managers with Mohamed El-Erian, Woody Brock, Bob Huebscher, Michael Furey and Ashley O'Connor

There's a widely held belief that in order to create alpha, a fund manager needs to make meaningful bets away from the market. But is this the reality? Does greater non-market risk actually produce higher alpha?

Today's slowdown is truly global, with economies everywhere contributing to it. We witness "disappointing" growth, quarter by quarter, year after year. The consensus pays too much attention to China as the cause. So what really is behind all this?

In Fodder NZ this week - Dom McCormick on illiquid assets, Michael Kitces on goal risk tolerance plus articles from Jon Shead, Dr Marcel Erni and Fidelity Worldwide Investment.

In Fodder this week - Dom McCormick on illiquid assets, Michael Kitces on goal risk tolerance plus articles from Jon Shead, Dr Marcel Erni and Fidelity Worldwide Investment.

Risk tolerance is a key constraint in designing a portfolio, but it should also be considered a key constraint in establishing their goals for investing in the first place.

Research Roundtable helps identify quality investment solutions and their place in portfolios. Covering a diverse range of investment strategies across a continuous series of meetings, it aims to further develop Investment Committee members’ knowledge and skill in the “secondary” fund research area of “know your product”, and the related due diligence of fund research houses, fund managers and funds, as well as Investment Committee APL and multi-manager portfolio decision-making.

In Fodder NZ this week - terrorism and rate rises with Oliver Hartwich, Marko Papic, Charles Gave, Tony Crescenzi and Robert Gay

The Paris terror attacks have severe political, strategic and economic implications. After only one week, the Union moved away from its ideal of free movement of people, and fiscal rules.

In Fodder this week - terrorism and rate rises with Oliver Hartwich, Marko Papic, Charles Gave, Tony Crescenzi and Robert Gay

I am not at all sure that an eventual interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve should be dismissed as an event with little impact in the real world.

If Paris is not an anomaly, and the frequency or magnitude of terrorist attacks against soft targets in G7 cities increases, what will be the geopolitical, economic and investment consequences?

In October, I joined Dr Woody Brock and PIMCO's Fed watcher, Tony Crescenzi, and 18 senior practitioners for a workshop organised by PortfolioConstruction Forum on where global monetary policy was headed. Three key views emerged.

We examine four situations where individuals make poor choices and review the research to show where the brain makes those decisions. In each case, we present some ideas about how to overcome the potentially suboptimal choice when it comes to investing.

In Fodder NZ this week - Tim Farrelly, Anatole Kaletsky, Robert Huebscher and Oliver Hartwich. Plus a great Finology piece from Credit Suisse.

In Fodder this week - Tim Farrelly, Anatole Kaletsky, Robert Huebscher and Oliver Hartwich. Plus a great Finology piece from Credit Suisse.