Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of August 30, 2016

Article Excerpt

One of our portfolio management clients recently wrote to say, “It seems lots of economists advise that we should lower our future expectations on portfolio returns. They think future results will fall way below market returns since, say, 1985. What do you think?” The U.S. economic recovery from the 2009 recession has been one of the slowest of modern times. U.S. economic sluggishness also holds our economic growth back here in Canada. Some economists say growth will stay slow indefinitely, for various reasons. Some blame demographics (the falling birth rate—too many old people, not enough young taxpayers). Others claim it’s because technology has matured. (They may ask, “When everybody already owns a cellphone, what do you do for an encore?” This reminds me of a common lament in the sluggish economy of the late 1970s: “After you’ve catalogued your tie collection and set up reminders for anniversaries and birthdays, what…