Investing in an evolving world
It’s a well known fact that the United States and most of Europe face significant headwinds. So what can an investor do to withstand them? Go global. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that the U.S. and developed Europe will struggle to eclipse 3 percent and 2 percent real GDP growth respectively. It also projects that new industrialized Asian economies and other advanced economies will grow by between 4 and 5 percent per year. What does this mean to you? It means you must embrace a global perspective when investing for growth.
Although the United States still has the largest and most dynamic economy in the world, the current political and fiscal challenges remain problematic. Today, new and changing economies in countries like Vietnam, South Korea and various South African countries are quietly experiencing rapid growth. China and India are often in the forefront of the news, but these peripheral countries stand to benefit as the global middle class expands as well as recovers.
Now more than ever, you need to focus your portfolio on the global economy and domestically look for corporations that derive the majority of their revenue from outside the United States. Although the U.S. economy is vast and growing − albeit slowly − we face an array of challenges in the immediate investment culture.
John Y. Kim, J.D., LL.M. is the principal of Symphony Financial Services Inc., located in Akron, OH. Symphony Financial Services, Inc. which was recently featured in the March, 2011, Forbes magazine. John was honored as one of the “40 Under 40” successful businessmen by Crain’s Cleveland Business News in December, 2003.
