Comment: the unease of index investing
Index investing is a disruptive innovation from which private investors have fully benefited. They get more returns and at much lower costs. Moreover, academic studies and, of course, the annual surveys by Standard & Poors show time and again that simply trying to beat the market is doomed to failure.
‘ESG investing could turn into bubble’
The number of institutional investors implementing ESG criteria has risen by almost 20% in two years, and almost 9 in 10 fund selectors want to maintain or expand their ESG offering. This could easily turn into a bubble, Natixis Investment Managers has warned.
Is a residential property bubble building in Luxembourg?
The price of an average house in Luxembourg has now risen well above €1m, making the Grand Duchy Europe’s second-most expensive housing market after Monaco. The regulators have just announced plans to impose tough minimum deposit requirements on new housing loans. Are these signs of speculative exuberance and is there a risk to the banking sector? Should investors be worried?
An 'everything bubble'?
Financial market bubbles are quite concentrated, we noted recently. But more and more market segments seem to be overheating. Government bonds, on the other hand, strongly disagree with the stock markets.
An anecdotal example of this bubble-forming is the price of wood (lumber), which has risen even faster than the Nasdaq since the beginning of this year. Just take a look at the graph below: