Value investing in 2018: Defence will be as important as the offence

Human prosperity never abides long in the same place

Globally, we are now almost ten years into a period of extremely lax monetary policy which has achieved modest economic growth, skyrocketing asset prices with little or, in some cases, no deleveraging of debt burdens, writes Simon Jaffé, portfolio manager at OLIM Investment Managers.

Central bank action has also underpinned public fiscal deficits and kept alive failing (‘zombie') private companies. In short, it has delayed the necessary restructuring away from the debt-driven patterns of consumption which played a key role in causing the Financial Crisis. Politically, this process has been buttressed (in Western democracies, at least) by the inability of voters to reward politicians for telling the truth about economic growth, taxation and inequality. Albion rebrands business; brings recently acquired OLIM fund to retail market For several years now, investment...