Rajiv Sethia

Invest Globally, Not Just Locally

Just to add to the fine commentary above - we should not forget these are volatile markets that are still at historical highs despite the recent correction. The bracketing of these together is a myth spread by Goldman that the popular media has been quick to jump on. Each of them is a completely different animal: considering politics, the economy, and the stage of human development. Despite a common market uptrend in the past decade these do not share much else with each other - which may be a good thing as uncorrelated markets are difficult to find.

The "demographic inevitability" isn't inevitable, just as it wasn't for most of the two centuries prior to the last 20 years. Weak institutions, fickle economic policy, political challenges, societal strife (particularly India and China) and governance issues can still trounce sound economics quite easily in each of these countries. Exchange controls over capital flows make true asset pricing difficult. But I do agree with the author that these may represent good diversification opportunities for a mainly US based portfolio.