The creator of the Buttonwood column in The Economist flew into Toronto from London to give a wide-ranging speech on the state of the world and how the economics, and investing, would play out over the next few years. Richard Cookson, now with the impressive Citi bank, treated us and scared us by explaining that in the developed world, we have too few assets for all the investment dollars to get the returns that they want. Citi is investing very carefully into the emerging markets but with the Middle East unrest, the risk costs are rising rapidly.
As Richard says, "Egypt matters as now investors have to add higher risk to emerging markets."
My favourite nugget was Richard's elegant statement,
"It is a cardinal error to confuse cyclical change with structural change."
Citi's breakfast speaker series run by Peter Charrington, CEO, North America, certainly highlighted the details of why we are in a time of great structural shifts. I'm sure Peter would welcome a call for more information.
Contact: Leslie Bains +1 (212) 559-2216
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