The death of the cult of equities

"The future is not about equities, the future is about income." So said Stephen Drew, head of credit at Thames River, at the group's annual investment conference last week.

Sceptics might respond that, as a credit manager, he is bound to say that, but Drew’s thesis is based on the less self-serving theory of the demographics of developed populations, and in particular the UK. He argues the great bull run in equities, which we saw from the 1960s through to the 1990s, was driven by the investing population looking for a means to fund their retirement. The baby boomer generation of the late 1950s and 1960s are reaching that point in their lives where they are considering their retirement options more closely. And in retirement, investors are interested in i...