The Economist (November 2)
“Even as wars rage and the geopolitical climate darkens, the world economy has been an irrepressible source of cheer…. Unfortunately, however, this good cheer cannot last. The foundations for today’s growth look unstable. Peer ahead, and threats abound.”
Tags: Climate, Foundations, Geopolitical, Growth, Irrepressible, Threats, Unstable, Wars, World economy
Institutional Investor (August 14)
“A public market downturn and an abundant supply of private equity stakes have culminated in an unmissable opportunity for secondaries investors.” Favorable “supply/demand imbalances and market dynamics” have arisen due to “the dramatic outperformance of private equity thanks to lagged marks and flat or marginally down valuations in 2022,” causing “asset owners to become overweight PE as public equity markets declined materially.” Pensions, endowments, foundations and other asset owners have become “forced sellers of private equity stakes to return to their strategic weights,” and “because of illiquidity, overhang, supply/demand imbalance, and forced selling, buyers require a material discount to transact.”
Tags: Asset owners, Discount, Downturn, Endowments, Forced selling, Foundations, Illiquidity, Imbalances, Market dynamics, Opportunity, Outperformance, Overhang, Overweight, Pensions, Private equity, Secondaries investors, Supply, Valuations
Institutional Investor (August 4)
“Rampant inflation means the total return that private and community foundations need to break even and pay their beneficiaries is about as high as it’s ever been.” As they face “some of the most challenging mandates they’ve ever encountered,” foundations “will have to make tough decisions about risk and spending to survive.”
Tags: Beneficiaries, Break even, Challenging, Foundations, Inflation, Mandates, Rampant, Risk, Spending, Total return
New York Times (January 25)
“So far, 2022 is off to a rocky start for the stock market. Yesterday, after an initial plunge in which stocks dropped as much as 4 percent — the biggest one-day drop in nearly a year — the market rallied and ended the day with a slight gain.” There was no particularly market-moving news, but “the foundations supporting the market during the pandemic are looking less stable.”
Tags: 2022, Foundations, Gain, News, Pandemic, Plunge, Rallied, Rocky start, Stock market, Support
The Economist (September 21)
“We have found that, whether it is in Democratic politics or Russian dreams of opening an Arctic sea passage, climate now touches on everything we write about…. Because the processes that force climate change are built into the foundations of the world economy and of geopolitics, measures to check climate change have to be similarly wide-ranging and all-encompassing. To decarbonise an economy is not a simple subtraction; it requires a near-complete overhaul.”
Tags: Arctic, Climate change, Decarbonise, Democrat, Foundations, Geopolitics, Overhaul, Russia, Sea passage, World economy
Institutional Investors (October 16)
Increasingly philanthropic foundations are being designed to expire rather than continue in perpetuity. “50 years ago, spend-down strategies accounted for 5 percent of the total assets of America’s 50 largest foundations, compared with 24 percent in 2010. As the number of ultrawealthy people in the world grows, the number of spend-down foundations is expected to rise.” The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one such foundation as it’s designed to “spend out 50 years after the founders die.”
