Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World: Challenging Perceptions in Asset Allocation and Investment

The world is upside down. The emerging market countries are more important than many investors realise.  They have been catching up with the West over the past few decades. Greater market freedom has spread since the end of the Cold War, and with it institutional changes which have further assisted emerging economies in becoming more productive, flexible, and resilient. The Western financial crisis from 2008 has quickened the pace of the relative rise of emerging markets – their relative economic power, and with political power, but also their financial power as savers, investors and creditors. Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World: Challenging Perceptions in Asset Allocation and Investment argues that finance theory has misunderstood risk and that this has led to poor investment decisions. Emerging markets constitute a good example of why traditional finance theory is faulty. The book accurately describes the complex and changing global environment currently facing the investor and asset allocator. It raises many questions often bypassed because of the use of simplifying assumptions and models. The narrative builds towards a checklist of issues and questions for the asset allocator and investor and then to a discussion of a variety of regulatory and policy issues. Aimed at institutional and retail investors as well as economics, finance, business and international relations students, Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World covers many complex ideas, but is written to be accessible to the non–expert.

Dr Jerome Booth (London, England) is a well–known economist, emerging market expert, investor and entrepreneur.  He is a sought after commentator on global economic events, was part of the MBO creating Ashmore Investment Management, which is now one of the world’s leading investment managers dedicated to emerging markets and, until May 2013, served as its head of research. Through his private office, New Sparta, Jerome manages a number of his investments.  He is the principal shareholder and Chairman of the UK phone company New Call Telecom. He is Chairman of the investigative news journalism company ExaroNews, and Chairman of Walpole Publishing which produces Moving On Magazine for school–leavers. He is also Chairman of New Sparta Films, and also recently bought Icon Film Distribution UK. Jerome is also the principal shareholder of the Lloyds insurance broker, CBC UK Ltd. He is currently a visiting professor at Cass Business School, a governor of Anglia Ruskin University, chair of the Fitzwilliam Museum Development Trust, Deputy Chairman of the Britten Sinfonia and a council member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. All proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to the Ashmore Foundation, which supports charitable causes benefitting disadvantaged communities throughout emerging markets. For more information on the work of the Ashmore Foundation and the charities it supports, please visit the website: www.ashmorefoundation.org