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While 2018 will have a difficult time living up to 2017’s stellar returns, we believe the markets should still have a more-than-decent showing. Central to this generally optimistic view of the markets is our expectation that the global economy is fairly healthy. Broad-based synchronized growth, which began in 2017, should continue into 2018 a...

The supply-and-demand dynamics are setting up for a very good year for municipal bonds relative to Treasuries. New-issue supply will most likely drop materially from above $400 billion the last two years to below $300 billion, which would be a low supply not seen in over 20 years. Demand will be particularly strong from high net worth individuals t...

Research has shown that demographic trends have important relationships with many economic variables. As a nation’s population ages, the balance of capital tends to shift from debtors to creditors. The supporting data behind the phenomenon and other initial baseline assumptions outlines our capital market return forecasts for approximately 50...

Despite historically low interest rates and increasingly favorable economic conditions, inflation has remained persistently below the Fed’s 2% target for nearly six years. While stubbornly low inflation would have been cause for alarm in the past, few seem to be worried. With other economic indicators headed in a positive direction, the Fed h...

There are currently more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies with a combined market capitalization of over $400 billion dollars. In the grand scheme of things, they represent a relatively small portion of the global economy. However, these alternative, digital currencies continue to generate a significant amount of buzz among curious investors. As an inves...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) is here to stay and its provisions change the landscape of the private equity world going forward. The decrease in corporate rates coupled with new net operating loss limitations, corporate alternative minimum tax repeal, and accelerated expenditures will directly impact how the value and price modeling of deals are...

Under prior law, the Internal Revenue Code provided that employers would be allowed deductions for operating privately owned aircraft attributable to business flights. Under the new law, though, expenses attributable to entertainment activities will now be 100 percent non-deductible, whereas in the past they were 50 percent deductible. Other change...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing quickly, and it’s impossible for anyone to give a precise vision of how the next ten—much less five—years will unfold. Our aim here is different: to make specific predictions about AI trends for the next 12 months and draw out key implications for business, government, and society as a who...

The future. It’s the topic on the mind of most business leaders—what’s going to happen in the future? And importantly, how do you ensure you’re prepared for it? Today, as technological advances impact the scale, scope, and utility of data and information, a new ecosystem of information and trust is taking shape around us. Bu...

Detailed analyses and quantitative rigor go into every sound investment decision. To make matters more challenging, we are constantly battling our instincts, which can pull us in conflicting directions and get in the way of sound investment discipline. To this end, we must find an equitable balance between the fear that tugs at us when markets are ...

Operational improvements are a key lever for achieving value creation after a deal closes. There are three critical ways private equity firms can both protect and grow value through operations. One way is to lead differently, beginning with recognizing that the due diligence process can cause employees to be apprehensive. When leaders understand an...

A flexible operating model drives innovation and responsiveness to market changes. It nearly always reflects a fundamental shift in long-standing beliefs about how organizations make money, and it requires a shift to a highly adaptable configuration of capabilities that must align with strategy and occur throughout all levels of an organizatio...

You’ve made the right moves in your operating business—you’ve developed and executed your IT plan and upgraded your ERP, EAM, and CRM systems to improve efficiencies and gain new insights. You're starting to see results, but these new systems are generating vast amounts of data you aren't always sure what to make of. To de...

According to Pew Research, in February 2005, just 8% of internet users, or 5% of all adults, said they used social networking sites, compared to 67% of online adults who were using social networking sites as of June 2013. Elmore DeMott knows firsthand the benefits and challenges of social media for professional and per...

Over the past few years, investors have been keenly drawn to strategies that promise to lower equity portfolio risk. This article examines one popular low-risk strategy, minimum variance, which optimizes a basket of stocks to deliver the lowest possible portfolio variance. The authors examine the underlying factor exposure...