The pros and cons of binning benchmarks A Fidelity paper on unconstrained investing is convincing - if you truly believe in the skill of your manager you should give him the power to act - but given what we know about the success of active managers, is it really time to bin the benchmarks? OECD gives Asia a pensions warning Asian pensions systems are in dire need of reform as they face rapidly ageing populations and pensions that are either too generous or, at the other end of the scale, inadequate. China, for example, aims to pay men 78 per cent of their working income and the Philippines promises over 80 per cent. In Indonesia and Singapore, however, the rate is below 20 per cent. Demand to sustain UK gilt prices Pent-up demand from pension schemes means UK gilt yields will remain at depressed levels even if foreign buyers lose confidence in the UK and withdraw en masse, according to Andrew Clare, professor of asset management at Cass Business School Mr Romney and the equity privateers The privateers of private equity should be charged not just with having been awarded too much privilege, but also with arrogance, writes John Plender Why the fund industry faces extinction The internet is changing the way consumers compare, buy, trade and research many products including food, music, books, and information. There is no reason why it should not revolutionise investing too. Why have the costs of investing in mutual funds not fallen as assets have risen? It's time for the "iPot." Shale gas fate trips up on politics and bubblenomics The gas industry's hopes for regulations that would bring forward demand for their glut-bedevilled product are fading. Instead, the implosion of the shale promoters" capital budgets will lead to prices rising, gradually, to the marginal cost of supply, writes John Dizard Successful short selling - an effective but rare skill Returns from short bias funds over the past few years do not make particularly happy reading as shorting only works in particularly dire years. A better choice might be a variable bias approach This entry was posted by Emma Boyde on Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 17:56 and is filed under Uncategorised.