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hat a difference a new year makes. Fueled by massive liquidity injection from the European Central Bank (ECB) and expectations of additional easing from central banks around the globe, stocks raced out of the starting gate and left bearish sentiment in the dust.

As we briefly review 2011, one thing is apparent: corporations generally had a better year than politicians, job seekers or investors. Despite 2011’s economic volatility, companies delivered better earnings than the consensus had forecast last January. Yet despite solid corporate profitability, macro uncertainties kept stocks under pressure for mos...

Proposals to reduce federal debt have largely missed the mark. That is certainly the case when it comes to suggestions to replace tax-exempt municipal bonds with taxable alternatives or federally subsidized tax credit options. These alternatives not only produce much less in revenue for the US Treasury than most assume, they also result in a loss o...

The world continues to ride the same train of global imbalances. While short-term solutions have allowed us to arrive at the next station, few are attempting to address the long-term issues. We believe that capital markets will continue to assail the weakest links in the financial system, which, hopefully, instills the required discipline for polic...

This report analyses, from an investment perspective, the features of ecological /organic agriculture that make it an attractive option for those considering investment in agriculture/farmland and particularly for those investors with an SRI/ESG understanding.

Credit Suisse believes that directional strategies will likely continue to add value toward the end of the year. On the other hand, while the short-term event risk of the coming weeks is expected to set a challenging environment for the majority of hedge funds, it should be supportive or at least not harmful for global macro managers.

A long-term perspective is difficult to maintain through the roller coaster of the past 10 years. It is reasonable to wonder when we will revisit the much preferred bull market of the 1980s and 1990s. While we think world equity markets should earn positive real rates of return over the next five to 10 years, we are less certain there will be a mul...

Rather than trying to seasonally time the market, most investors would be better served by staying fully invested unless there are fundamental reasons to reduce stock exposures. Volatility is likely, as investors weigh the ongoing debt crisis in Europe, the slowdown in China, the strength of the U.S. economy, and the resolution of the "fiscal cliff...

The European Central Bank’s new policy direction has helped reduce volatility to more normal levels for this phase of the business cycle. Lower volatility could eventually reduce equity risk premiums and allow for higher stock prices. In fact, it already has. Strong U.S. economic data, record corporate profits, and falling unemployment should help ...

This paper examines the gap between the theory of portfolio construction and its practice. In particular, it analyzes some of the problems in the application of portfolio optimization techniques to individual investors and identifies ways to compensate for the theory's shortcomings.

Today’s collectors increasingly view art as an investment. Best practices should be applied to collectibles similar to those applied to traditional assets like homes and automobiles. This article reviews the important and complex issues surrounding the legal and financial risks that pervade ownership of this “new asset class.”

Deciding whether to invest in an art fund? This article examines challenges in defective title that art funds and their investors may face in the unregulated art and collectibles market.

This basic primer for investment managers provides a thorough introduction to exchange-traded funds – what they are, how they work, why they can be useful – and examines why regulators have been taking a closer look at them lately.

The four articles in this paper provide investment perspectives on the U.S. recovery, the Eurozone crises, the nature of China’s landing and whether policy makers have unleashed deflation or inflation.

Over the past 20 years, economic, political and technological events have led to a dramatic growth in Emerging Market economies. Increased globalization, the dissolution of the communist bloc and the opening up of previously inaccessible markets such as China have all played a part in the expansion of investment opportunities in these countries, wh...