The responsible investment market continues to grow, with associated assets under management (AUM) up 17% over the course of 2019 to $1,149 billion. This represents 37% of total professionally managed assets under management (TAUM), which now sits at $3,135 billion according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).1*
The American mathematician Claude Shannon famously established a lower bound for the number of possible moves in a typical chess match: around 10120. That's 10 with 119 zeroes after it. Reflecting on when the COVID-19 crisis began to unfold across the globe, I think the Shannon number adequately captures the breadth of possible economic outcomes at the time.
As the crisis has evolved, however, two things have become clear: the pandemic has accelerated some trends already in place, and COVID-19 will have implications that are opaque now but that will become undeniably clear and meaningful over time.
Every four years, markets are vexed by anxiety and volatility from the race for the US presidency. But a historical lesson for long-term investors is clear....
Ignore the short-term market noise and stick with equities and other assets that will benefit from the secular forces driving the economy and the business cycle into the next presidential term and beyond.