10 Weekend Reads (plus pension funds)

This weekend's contribution to the cause, courtesy once again of Barry Ritholtz, are ten interesting articles.  You may note that at the top of the list are essays about the virtues of index funds and vices of chasing the big yields.  But the graphic of the trend in recent years of pension funds being invested in hedge funds is what I found most intriguing.  It's also more than a little scary that pension funds are putting retirement dollars at risk by buying into these.  Twenty years ago, not only was this unheard of but it was illegal for pensions to be invested in anything this speculative.  It's especially interesting that this graph would show up on the same list as the articles about index funds vs high yields.  It is an ever-changing world.

10 Weekend Reads 5-14-16 - The Big Picture

10 Weekend Reads

May 14, 2016 7:00am by Barry Ritholtz

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a shot of Italian Roast expresso, lounge out on a Natuzzi leather couch, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads:

• Index Investing Makes Markets and Economies More Efficient (Philosophical Economics)
• The high cost of high expected returns (The Thought Factory)
• After three weeks in China, it’s clear Beijing is Silicon Valley’s only true competitor (Re/Code)
• 4 Men with 4 Very Different Incomes Open Up About the Lives They Can Afford (Esquire) see also The Average 29-Year-Old (The Atlantic)
• The Cure For Fear: Scientists have discovered a new way to treat our most traumatic memories (New Republic)
• I Saw Trump’s Tax Returns. You Should, Too. (BloombergView) see alsoWill a President Trump Still Be the King of Debt? (BloombergView)
• Meet The New Mavericks: An Inside Look At America’s Drone Training Program (Fast Company)
• Is Big Data Taking Us Closer to the Deeper Questions in Artificial Intelligence? (Edge)
• Why America Can’t Quit the Drug War: After 45 years, more than $1 trillion wasted, and the creation of the world’s largest prison system, America still lacks the political will to change its failed drug policy (Rolling Stone)
• Long Play: The charmed lives of Paul McCartney and his Magnificent Melodic Gift (New Yorker)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Robert Frank, economics professor at Cornell, author of Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy.

US Pension Funds Increasingly Drawn to Hedge Funds

(To view the graph, click on the link above the title)  

Source: Reuters