Though a "broad-based recovery" is underway and markets have rebounded, "investors remain deeply apprehensive about the future." But strategists at UBS say there are "extraordinary opportunities" amid the "challenges" investors face as they imagine "The Decade Ahead," a new white paper released in February.
Far from a tome touting the latest securitizations from the big bank, UBS Chief Investment Strategist and Head, Wealth Management Research, Americas, Mike Ryan, and Head, Thematic Research Wealth Management Research, Americas, Kurt Reiman, and a large research team offer their long-term views at the turn of the decade.
Acknowledging deep global social and environmental problems, that "1.8 billion people are mired in poverty and lack basic sanitation, access to medicine and essential nutrition," and that pollution of air and "water resources may also pose threats to greater prosperity," the paper goes on to say that the future is "brighter," although it "will take work."
The report asserts that the U.S. will still be "the leader of the pack," in the new decade but tempers this, reminding readers that this country needs "fiscal, regulatory and education reform." China will, surpassing Japan as the number-two economy behind the U.S., challenge the U.S. in "economic leadership," according to the report.
Geopolitics, Risk and Return
Geopolitics is an issue that will "keep risk premiums elevated" for equities and fixed income as the risk of conflict continues. The authors advise incorporating "geopolitics into an investment process." Still on the international front, the report also advises of an allocation shift into emerging markets, citing a "persistent growth advantage" as the "most compelling catalyst" for this allocation.
Philanthropy
