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Most Recent ArticlesDuring a recent dinner in Dubai, a longstanding colleague of mine from the private banking business asked, “What do you think of Islamic wealth management as an enterprise model?” I was stumped. Not because I haven’t thought about it, but because it had been so long since I’d heard the question. These discussions were more common in the pre-credit crisis era, when the liquidity cycle was peaking. They have all but evaporated in the current environment. …continue reading The visitor to the nation of Georgia continually encounters images by Niko Pirosmanashvili (1862-1918), known as Pirosmani and considered a master of naïve painting. His portraits of Georgians enjoying daily life a century ago—peasants, fishermen, musicians, even millionaires—pop up everywhere as restaurant murals and tourist mementos. And even occasionally as the original artwork.
It is noteworthy, then, that Pirsomani’s sense of the ordinary extended to a man in oriental costume holding the tether of a Bactrian camel. Tartar Cameleer evokes the Silk Road, suggesting that the commonplace extended to caravans passing through Tiflis (now Tbilisi). In view of the painting’s 1914 date, the cameleer image may have been nostalgic, but it is a vivid, if rustic, indication of Georgia’s longstanding role as trade junction between Central Asia and Europe. From the perspective of global investment strategy, Pirosmani’s portrait of the camel driver conveys the cosmopolitan nature of the Georgian economy. His worldview prevails into the present day as Georgia looks both East and West to affirm its progressive identity. The credit crisis laid bare several longstanding tenets of the investment business, including that market prices are largely efficient, established markets are better regulated, and the biggest economies offer less risk. While elements of these issues remain true, we still face disjointed financial markets, generating incoherent answers to routine questions. One of the latest manifestations of this trend may have been the Dubai fiasco. Uncertainty and confusion abound. There are few unified stories across the world today; Australia stands among them. Certainly the dimensions of its investment substance may surprise those distant to the story. Consider these points of uncommon knowledge:
From an investor’s standpoint, we identify themes that suggest the relevance of Australia to a prudent, risk-adjusted portfolio strategy. Calcutta Madrassah: Portfolio Management in a Post-Crisis Worldby Douglas Clark Johnson16 October 2009
The Calcutta Madrassah is a proud building, sensibly designed. It opened in 1824 off Haji Mahammad Mohsin Square, some 50 years after the founding of the original Islamic college. On approach through the compact urban turmoil surrounding it, the building looks like some sort of Alexandrine temple complex. Overpowering Doric columns flanking the main entrance direct you inward, where two floors of classrooms surround a courtyard. At the far end of this attempt at a grassy space, there is a lone water hand-pump. Despite its somewhat topsy-turvy condition, the Calcutta Madrassah is a haven of peace in the tightly-knit urban landscape. If the United States economy were a hospital, its patients would run the risk of addiction to the fiscal equivalent of Demerol, the high-powered painkiller. Whether the nation can maintain the current course of treatment without severe side effects, let alone withdrawal symptoms, is a quandary facing investors who are presented with a mixed set of economic and market symptoms. Over the past year, the government has served as white knight to the auto industry, tried to stimulate the housing industry with tax credits, and pumped untold additional billions into the financial system. Congressional legislation meanwhile has been chock-full of spending programs in an attempt to amplify the wave of hand-outs. When combined with the Federal Reserve’s asset-purchase program, the total stimulus package has amounted to almost 20% of GDP. The figure is staggering by developed-world standards. …continue reading |
Kolkata is a proud multi-cultural city, a fulcrum of the Indian intellectual tradition. Its personalities have included Subhash Chandra Bose, a freedom fighter, Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel Prize-winning poet, and Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu spiritual leader. For legacy reasons, the National Library of India is housed here, not in New Delhi. It is also home to the Calcutta Madrassah, the oldest educational institution in the city.