Economic growth in the developed markets appears to be in a general if tepid recovery. The US continues to exhibit steady recovery in economic growth supported by a robust housing recovery and manufacturing which has even now widened to a slightly healthier labor market. Tempering this is a falling participation rate, which is troubling since

The wall of refinancing in the developed markets presents a high risk to emerging market fixed income assets as they divert capital away from these markets.

A couple of thoughts on risk… In a portfolio consisting of assets of varying complexity, liquidity and aggregation structures (such as mutual funds, structured credit and structured products), the problem of risk measurement and management becomes a bit more complex.

Let us consider a model for philanthropic, development finance. An interesting model for development philanthropy is one which provides equity capital to target low income groups to finance and encourage enterprise .

As the world recovers slowly from the Great Recession of 2008, employment has lagged, particularly youth and new graduate employment. Why is this? Employing new graduates and the young is a longer term investment involving money, time and resources towards future productivity. Employing older, experienced workers is an investment in current productivity. Any future productivity