On the 45th anniversary of the first flight to land humans on the moon, a new book explains why we haven’t been back there or anywhere beyond earth orbit in over four decades, and why the US is dependent on Russia for access to its own space station.
“Since the end of Apollo, space hasn’t been considered important enough to risk human life. The House recently passed a NASA authorization bill that said ‘safety is the highest priority.’ That means that everything else, including actual spaceflight, is a lower one. We’re apparently willing to spend billions on it, but that’s for jobs, not actual progress in space,” says Rand Simberg, author of the new book, Safe Is Not An Option: Overcoming The Futile Obsession With Getting Everyone Back Alive That Is Killing Our Expansion Into Space.
“Despite the fact that, to get our astronauts to ISS, we have to send millions of taxpayer dollars to Russia, which continues to act against our national interests, there seems to be no hurry to end our dependence on them. It’s apparently more important to Congress to not possibly lose an astronaut than to regain control of our own space destiny. Congress underfunds Commercial Crew and insists that NASA continue to develop it the old, expensive slow way that killed fourteen astronauts anyway, in the name of ‘safety.'”
He points out that had the US taken this safety obsession as seriously in the 1960s, it wouldn’t have sent astronauts around the moon in 1968, when the US won the space race, let alone landing them in 1969. “Buzz and Neil thought they had maybe a 50-50 chance of success, but they went, because it was important,” Simberg says. “If I were an astronaut today, I’d be outraged at Congress, that thinks I don’t have ‘the right stuff’ to support my country in space, or that what I’m doing is so trivial it’s not worth the risk.”
The book notes that space is the harshest frontier that humanity has ever faced in its history, and it is unrealistic to think that it will be opened for development and settlement without the loss of human life, any more than any previous one was. Simberg elaborates, “I’m not saying that we should be trying to kill people in space, or be reckless, any more than I like to see people die on the highways. But the only way to not have people die in space is to not send them. We should be doing so much there that deaths are just as inevitable as they are in any other human endeavor.”
Spanish financial services group BBVA has selected a pair of grand art venues to host its series of once-in-a-lifetime private client dinners prepared by the Roca brothers, whose restaurant in Girona, Spain, landed atop the influential World’s 50 Best Restaurants list last year.
The Rocas will prepare meals for BBVA’s U.S. clients next month at the Rachofsky House in Dallas and at Rienzi, the commanding former home of the arts patrons Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III that now houses the European decorative arts collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
“These two venues are the perfect settings for our clients to enjoy the culinary journey the Rocas will take them on with their multi-course dinners,” said BBVA Compass Chairman and CEO Manolo Sanchez. “As an organization, BBVA has an emphasis on the arts, and the Rocas’ particular brand of gastronomy is precisely that: an art. It’s only fitting that the venues reflect the brothers’ creative and innovative approach to gastronomy.”
The Roca brothers — head chef Joan, sommelier Josep, and pastry chef Jordi — will shutter El Celler de Can Roca for five weeks to recreate their restaurant experience for clients in countries where BBVA operates, including the U.S., Mexico, Peru and Colombia.The U.S. events in Houston and Dallas kick off the tour with a series of dinners for clients of BBVA Compass, BBVA Group’s U.S. franchise. BBVA is sponsoring the chefs’ tour as part of its three-year partnership with El Celler de Can Roca.
The tour begins in Houston on Aug. 4, where the brothers and their staff will prepare dinner for 300 guests over the course of three days in Rienzi’s ballroom. The tour will conclude its swing through the United States on Aug. 8 and 9 at Dallas’ Rachofsky House, the private home of Cindy and Howard Rachofsky. Roughly 800 works of contemporary art — including American Minimalism pieces, post-war European art with a specific focus on Italy, and the art of post-war Japan — are on display in the Rachofsky home on a rotating basis.
Joan Roca is considered a pioneer in sous-vide, a cooking process where food is vacuum-packed and cooked in water. He developed the Roner, a professional sous-vide cooking device. Josep Roca, the sommelier, meanwhile, has won over critics with his unorthodox wine pairings and techniques. And Jordi Roca, the pastry chef, won the World’s Best Pastry Chef Award 2014. The judges called him “part chef, part architect, part magician” and an “eccentric but modest genius,” citing his work recreating famous perfumes in edible form.
Photo: "National Grand Theatre detail" by Aurelio Asiain from HIrakata-shi, Osaka, Japan . China will Advance Ahead of Both the UK and Japan to Become the Second Largest Equity Market by 2030
For the most part, emerging nation capital markets remain underdeveloped relative to the size of their economies, despite rapid growth in capital-raising over the past two decades. Emerging markets have a 39% share of global output (or 51% on a purchasing power parity basis) and yet account for only 22% of global equity market capitalization and a 14% share of both corporate and sovereign bond market value, respectively.
Credit Suisse believes this gap will close, driven by a disproportionately large contribution from emerging equity and corporate bond supply (as company capital structures benefit increasingly from lower financing costs via disintermediation of bank loans) and demand (driven by growth in domestic mutual, pension and insurance funds), given relatively high savings ratios prevalent among emerging economies.
In 2030, the United States will retain its ranking as the largest global equity market with a (nominal dollar) capitalization of USD 98 trillion, with a weight of 34.6% (representing a USD 74 trillion gain since 2014), while China advances ahead of both the UK and Japan to become the second largest equity market with a USD 54 trillion capitalization and a weight of 18.9% (representing a USD 50 trillion nominal gain from 2014).
In the proprietary study of Credit Suisse Research Institute “Emerging Capital Markets: The Road to 2030”, the firm extrapolates established historical patterns of growth in emerging and developed capital markets to assist in projecting their absolute and relative dimension and composition of market value by the year 2030.
And Credit Suisse finds a strong relationship between the historical expansion of developed nation aggregate equity and corporate bond market value relative to GDP and gains in economic productivity, and thus using long-term projections of per capita GDP, they are able to make projections for both emerging and developed market equity and fixed income issuance over the 17 years to 2030. And they go on to calculate implied underwriting fees and commissions from primary and secondary capital market activity and then apportion future emerging market equity and fixed income deal revenue between emerging and developed market-domiciled financial services companies employing the evolving observed trends in allocation.
As a result, Credit Suisse estimates that the market value for emerging equities, corporate and sovereign bonds will increase by USD 98 trillion, USD 47 trillion and USD 17 trillion, respectively, in nominal dollar terms between 2014 and 2030, versus gains of USD 125 trillion, USD 52 trillion and USD 24 trillion, respectively, for these asset classes in the developed world.
Hence, the company projects that, by 2030, the emerging market share of global equities will increase to 39%, for corporate bonds to 36% and for sovereign bonds to 27%. Emerging markets may understandably retain their aggregate equity skew toward resources, given their collective characteristic as a net commodity exporter; however, over the duration out to 2030, there will likely be a normalization toward more under-represented industry sectors relative to the developed world, particularly healthcare, industrials and consumer discretionary.
They examine the capacity for growth in assets under management of emerging market domestic mutual, pension and insurance funds to 2030 to absorb incremental equity, corporate and sovereign bond issuance. In total, they forecast this to be USD 6 trillion for equities, USD 16 trillion for corporate bonds, and USD 17 trillion for sovereign bonds.
For the most part, they do not foresee the required development of domestic institutional investment assets under management acting as a hurdle to our forecasts for equity and new bond issuance to 2030. Additionally, sustained foreign portfolio inflows will maintain a further source of demand for emerging market equities and bonds. Should the pace of gross portfolio flows into emerging markets continue to average 1.2% of GDP until 2030, then the cumulative inflows into emerging markets over the duration would amount to USD 10 trillion.
To see the report “Emerging capital markets: the Road to 2030,” use this link.
Mark Carney World Economic Forum 2013. Photo: World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland . Bank of England May Take Away the Punch Bowl as Party Begins
Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney has already hinted in his annual speech at the Mansion House – at which important economic policies are aired to the City of London audience – that a hike may come sooner than investors expect. Most do not predict one until at least 2015 – possibly before the next UK general election which is due to be held in May of next year.
British rates have been frozen at 0.5% for more than five years. The UK economy has since emerged from the financial crisis and recession, with a growth rate that may reach 4% this year. However, the central bank dare not raise rates too high, says Cornelissen. Aside from threatening a strong economic recovery, it would also prove risky to the highly indebted UK private sector, he says.
Surprising strength of the UK economy
“The UK economy has shown surprising strength in 2014 and is now firing on almost all cylinders,” says Robeco‘s Chief Economist Léon Cornelissen in his monthly outlook. “Jobs are growing at a record pace, average house prices have risen strongly, and all UK regions have experienced growth.”
“It was therefore no surprise that Carney explicitly stated that the first rate hike could happen sooner than markets expect. This comment didn’t fall on deaf ears, so Carney found himself almost immediately forced to weaken the impact of his remarks by stressing that the ultimate decision would be data-driven.”
“Of course, central banks no longer consider it their primary task to take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going. They’ll now do their utmost to err on the side of caution and not hinder the recovery.”
The UK economy in numbers
House prices prompt bubble fears
House prices – the subject closest to most British hearts, due to high levels of home ownership – are approaching bubble territory, particularly in London. The average UK house price rose 12% in the year to June 2014, passing the 2007 peak. The BoE has been pressing for mortgage lending controls and could use a rate rise as a further bubble-bursting weapon.
“Bubble fears are understandable,” says Cornelissen. “Asset price inflation is clearly being used by central banks as a means to stimulate the wider economy into a self-sustaining recovery. But, of course, things can get out of hand.”
“The first line of defense for the BoE concerning the housing market is to introduce limits on the degree to which banks can operate in the risky sections of the mortgage market (so-called macro prudential measures). The BoE has now reintroduced a ‘corset’ for banks, but as the Economist magazine wittily remarked: “As corsets go, this is not unduly tight”.”
Cornelissen says the Taylor rule of economics – used to calculate the level of rates that will stabilize the economy in the short term but still maintain long-term growth – suggests a longer-term UK base rate of as much as 3.0%. “That’s 2.5% higher than the current rate – but then the Taylor rule is, of course, only a rule of thumb, and conditions in the world economy are far from normal.” He cited recent remarks by the BoE’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, who said: “Lots of nutty things are still happening,” justifying the bank’s extremely loose policy stance.
Cornelissen predicts that the BoE will also remain cautious on future rate hikes due to the high indebtedness of the private sector, whose debt pile is currently a hefty 163% of GDP. A rate rise would also increase the government’s own borrowing costs. He believes that 10-year yields on British gilts should rise from their present 2.75% above 3.0% before the year-end, and sterling should show continued strength versus the euro, which is damaging for UK exporters.
Scottish independence and Brexit threats
In the political sphere, Cornelissen believes a Scottish vote for independence due in September could prove damaging for the economy if Scots vote to secede from the UK. There may also be a referendum on the UK – or what remains of it – leaving the EU. British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised one in 2017 if his ruling Tory party is re-elected next May, largely to head off the growing electoral threat of the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
“Though the going seems good in the shorter term for the UK economy, a more long-term worry is the risk of the economic impact of Scottish independence and/or of the UK leaving the EU in the coming years in the so-called Brexit,” says Cornelissen.
“As the size of the Scottish economy is relatively small compared to the rest of the UK, the economic impact of the undoubtedly messy divorce will be relatively small. But the increase in political risk could hit sterling, at least for a while.”
“If Scottish independence does materialize, it would increase the risk of the remainder of the UK leaving the EU if only because Scotland is a Labour Party stronghold.” At present, the pro-EU Labour opposition has 41 members of Parliament compared to only one for the more anti-EU Tories who lead the current British government coalition. This would leave relatively more anti-EU MPs in a future rump Parliament that excluded Scotland.
However, opinion polls suggest a majority of Scots want to remain inside the UK, while a majority of voters across the UK want to remain part of the EU, in both cases for economic reasons. “Enlightened self-interest would suggest a majority of UK voters rejecting a Brexit. We therefore attach a low probability of a Brexit in the coming years of about 20%,” Cornelissen says.
Photo: Tamás Mészöly. Santander Sells 51% of Irish Based Insurance Companies to CNP
Banco Santander and CNP have reached a definitive agreement by which the French insurance company will acquire a 51% stake in the three companies that service Santander’s consumer finance unit (SCF) and which are based in Ireland. Under the terms of the agreement, SCF will distribute on an exclusive basis the whole range of products sold to SCF customers in several countries where it operates, including Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries.
The agreement, which is subject to the relevant regulatory authorizations, values the insurance companies, which distribute life and non-life products through SCF, at EUR 568 million. The transaction, which is expected to close before the end of the year, will generate a net capital gain for Grupo Santander of EUR 250 million, which will be fully used to strengthen the balance sheet.
CNP is a major European life insurer, with around EUR 28 billion of premiums. It is the leader in France while also having a growing international business, with operations in Brazil, Italy and Spain among other countries. The partnership will enable SCF to boost its future insurance business and will deliver better products and quality of service for customers, thanks to CNP’s long track record and expertise in the insurance business, particularly in credit insurance and payment protection.
According to the company, he price of the operation is 395 million dollars (EUR 290 million).
Evercore Wealth Management has announced the appointment of Helena Jonassen as a Managing Director and Wealth Advisor.
Ms. Jonassen joins Evercore Wealth Management from U.S. Trust, where she managed investment accounts as a Senior Trust and Fiduciary Officer. Prior to joining U.S. Trust in 1997, she worked as financial planner and portfolio manager for Train, Smith Counsel in New York. She has 30 years of experience in wealth management.
“We are pleased to welcome Helena to our growing national practice,” said Evercore Wealth Management Chief Executive Officer Jeff Maurer. “She shares our values and will further strengthen our strategic wealth planning team, delivering independent advice and solutions to serve each client’s interests.”
Ms. Jonassen reports to Chris Zander, Chief Wealth Advisory Officer at Evercore Wealth Management. She is based in New York City. She is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany and holds the Certified Financial Planner designation.
Evercore Wealth Management, a subsidiary of Evercore, serves high net worth individuals, families and related institutions, delivering customized investment management, financial planning, and trust and custody services. Evercore Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor with offices in New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tampa. The firm manages client assets totaling $5.2 billion as of March 31, 2014. Additionally, Evercore Wealth Management offers personal trust services to its clients through Evercore Trust Company N.A., a national trust bank with $42.3 billion in assets under administration as of March 31, 2014.
ACE Limited announced on Thursday that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the large corporate property and casualty (P&C) business of Itaú Seguros, S.A. from Itaú Unibanco S.A. for approximately $685 million. Upon completion of the transaction, ACE, which has a longstanding presence in Brazil, will be the largest commercial P&C insurer in the largest market in Latin America.
The Itaú Seguros large corporate P&C insurance business was established in 2006 and has been 100% owned by Itaú Unibanco, Brazil’s largest non-government bank, since 2009. In 2013, the business had approximately $950 million in gross premiums written and an 18% market share, making it Brazil’s leading commercial P&C carrier for the large corporate market. The business, which focuses on a broad array of property and marine coverages for large corporate accounts, has approximately 320 employees, a national distribution footprint and relationships with more than 600 brokers.
“Brazil is a large and important market to ACE’s strategy in Latin America. The addition of Itaú Seguros’s large corporate P&C insurance business will complement and deepen our longstanding presence in Brazil in a significant way,” said Evan G. Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ACE Limited. “This is a great opportunity to acquire from one of the region’s largest and most highly regarded banks an insurance market leader that has complementary business lines, national reach, extensive distribution, a diversified portfolio and, importantly, an experienced, professional and talented management team with an underwriting culture similar to ours. We are delighted that they will be joining ACE.”
ACE’s operations in Brazil currently include an established commercial and personal P&C business, a significant accident and health insurance business, as well as life insurance and reinsurance. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015 and be accretive to earnings immediately.
ACE Group is one of the world’s largest multiline property and casualty insurers. With operations in 54 countries, ACE provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. ACE Limited, the parent company of ACE Group, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a component of the S&P 500 index.
Napier Park Global Capital has announced that Dan Kittredge has joined the firm’s private equity group, Napier Park Financial Partners, as a managing director.
“We have known Dan for over fifteen years and have had the privilege of co-investing with him in HealthEquity, one of our current portfolio companies,” said Manu Rana, managing director and co-head of Napier Park Financial Partners. “Dan has an outstanding track record of identifying innovative high-growth companies in financial services and building their value. We look forward to Dan contributing greatly to the Napier Park franchise as we continue to grow.”
“Dan is an excellent addition to our team, bringing broad investment experience in the financial services industry including businesses across many of our target growth sectors, such as payments technology solutions, outsourced administrative technologies, financial product distributors, specialty finance alternative providers, asset management solutions, banking products and insurance related solutions,” added Steve Piaker, managing director and co-head of Napier Park Financial Partners.
Prior to joining Napier Park, Kittredge was vice president of investments at Security Benefit Corporation, a Guggenheim Partners affiliate, where he focused on leading private investments. Before that, he was a principal at Berkley Capital, a subsidiary of W.R. Berkley, where he focused on financial services and financial technology private equity and mezzanine debt investments for over ten years. Kittredge began his investing career at J.H. Whitney, prior to which he was an investment banker initially at Lazard, focusing on financial institutions, and subsequently at Banc of America Securities, focusing on insurance. Kittredge received a BA from Bowdoin College where he majored in mathematics and graduated summa cum laude.
Foto: 401 (k) 2013. Veinte años luchando por las pensiones
One size does not fit all. Such is the corollary of 20 years of experimentation with pensions all over the world. Did the world need two decades to reach it? Unfortunately, yes. Twenty years ago, in 1994, the World Bank published its Averting Old Age Crisis, a detailed study with basically one recommendation: everybody should follow the Chilean pension model, that is, a totally privatized system.
Averting Old Age Crisis signaled the climax of the so-called Washington Consensus: the idea that Latin America should follow a ‘laundry list’ of basic precepts to achieve economic growth. It was presented in the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings that took place in September 1994 in the capital city of a country that at the time was a poster child of the effects of liberalization and opening and economy: Madrid.
Nowadays, however, nobody wants to follow the Chilean system. In 2005, the World Bank announced that the recommendations of Averting Old Age Crisis were not longer valid. Of the 11 countries that have adopted the Chilean model, only Chile keeps it untouched. And that will probably not last too long: next month Chile will start a review that could end up triggering the creation of a government-owned pension fund that would compete with private financial institutions.
So, this is a good time to analyze what is happening with pension systems in Latin America. This is the aim of a course to be held in Miami from July 14 to July 18, organized by the London School of Economics, Santander Asset Management and Novaster.
The ‘all privatized’ pension systems have failed precisely in the areas where they were supposed to win. At a management level, pension costs have not fallen in spite of the fact that, at least in theory, competing management funds should be more efficient than government bureaucracy. From a macroeconomic perspective, private pension plans have not always meant a better allocation of capital, perhaps because in many developing countries there are not too many markets to invest in. That lack of investment opportunities creates another problem: often, the returns of the private pension funds are low, or even negative. So, instead of helping to fight the demographic time bomb that public pensions face, they worsen it.
Another risk is Government interference. Argentina’s Government forced the pension funds, created in 1994, to buy assets denominated in pesos to prop up the country’s beleaguered debt. That was a catastrophe for savers in 2001, when Argentina defaulted on its debt and saw the peso collapse, and paved the way for the late President Néstor Kirchner’s renationalization of the system seven years later. In small countries, such as Bolivia and El Salvador, the private system ended up creating a duopoly, simply because there are not enough savers to keep six or seven fund managers. The problem is not just a Latin American one: pension reform in Hungary, in 1997, ended up in disaster.
Why did it work in Chile and failed in so many other places? Carmelo Mesa, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and one of the speakers at the LSE event, points out at two elements that made Chile different: “First, its informal economy is relatively small. In other countries there are a large number of workers who are self-employed in the informal sector and do not contribute to their pension plans. Chile does not have to deal with that. Second, Chile has a functioning stock market since 1898, that has provided investment opportunities to the pension funds”.
However, even the Chilean system faces hurdles, among them the stubbornly high management costs. This defies traditional economics, but, put in the light of behavioral economics is not that surprising. “Empirical experience shows that citizens have usually more urgent matters to think about than to analyze the different options offered by financial institutions”, explains Professor Nicholas Barr, from the London School of Economics, who remembers how, in the early Nineties, while at the World Bank, he tried unsuccessfully to avoid making Chile the example for everybody.
The fact that people cannot manage their accounts properly to lower their costs can sound counter-intuitive, and even patronizing, but it is a fact: if hedge funds are regularly accused of abusing their investors—who are supposedly the most sophisticated and wealthiest—, why should average citizenry with little or no financial background know how to manage their pensions?
Twenty years after the universal acclamation of the Chilean pension model by the World Bank, it has become clear that it is not the magical cure that its advocates pretended. Pensions need reform—including extending the retirement age, and combining private and public plans—but the one size fits all formula was never sound.
2014 marks the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. In one of his early comedies, Love’s Labour’s Lost, the bard wrote that “beauty is bought by judgement of the eye”, which seems a very fitting comment for current market conditions: we are at a point in the economic and market cycle where perceptions and starting points are very important.
For one thing, US equities have reached an all-time high, having nearly tripled in value since the market’s post-crisis low in March 2009. After a very strong performance in 2013, many investors are banking profits and looking for reasons to sell. Under these circumstances it must be questioned whether good economic news is genuinely ‘good’ or in fact ‘bad’, because it portends monetary policy tightening. Economic conditions are far from homogenous globally and with so much central bank intervention having occurred (US), still occurring (Japan), and indeed likely to occur (eurozone), there appears to be a natural growing distrust of the current equity bull market. Most importantly, market volatility is at very low levels and is ‘spooking’ investors. Thus, we are at an interesting, if not perplexing, juncture for the global economy and more pressingly for global markets.
Fair is foul…
After the first quarter’s weather-induced slowdown in North America, current economic data points to an aggressive snap-back in the underlying US economy. Certainly we see nothing to temper the desire of North American policy makers to begin the process of normalising interest rates once quantitative easing has ceased. The picture is more complicated in Continental Europe, with purchasing managers’ indices generally favourable, albeit with weakening momentum. Moreover, with the euro elevated beyond the level that the European Central Bank considers optimal and with inflation soft, the threat of unconventional monetary policy, just as the Federal Reserve scales back its policy, is intriguing and potentially very helpful. Is, however, Europe’s tepid economic position really ‘good’ news because it means more policy stimulus? Or is it just outright worrying that despite the tumultuous declines in output, that demand remains so lacklustre? For bottom up stock specific investors, finding idiosyncratic mis-valued stocks has never been more important.
…Foul is fair
If the balance between policy and growth in the Western world seems finely poised then consider the East, especially China and Japan. The latter seems to have weathered the April consumption tax rise well – so well in fact that further economic stimulus in the shape of QE seems an unlikely prospect in the near term. In the space of the past three months, investors have moved from seeing this as ‘bad’ news to instead seeing it as ‘good’ news. Prime Minister Abe seems to be fleshing out the details of his third arrow of economic stimulus and with the potential for the world’s largest pension fund (Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund) to materially add to its equities weightings, the prospects for the Japanese economy are certainly on an improving trajectory. The potential for it and indeed the wider global economy to be derailed by a significant slowdown in China remains a key danger, however. Targeted stimulus appears to be positively impacting the Chinese economy, but concerns remain that larger structural challenges abound and risks are elevated.
Infinite riches
Certainly, in the interim, corporate cash is starting to be deployed. The long-awaited turn in the capital expenditure (capex) cycle is still struggling to gain momentum, but while companies seem reluctant to build they seem much more willing to buy. With cash balances swelling and the cost of money still so cheap, we have witnessed a wave of corporate activity during the second quarter. This has occurred across a variety of sectors and very often involving US companies seeking to either utilise their stranded overseas cash or indeed more aggressively ‘invert’ their underlying tax jurisdiction, which helps increase the efficiency of their capital structures. With investors generally greeting such deals favourably – the share prices of acquiring companies have typically risen – the cost of money remaining low, and economic conditions on balance remaining satisfactory, we would expect more such deals in the second half of 2014.
In this update Matthew Beesley, Head of Global Equities at Henderson Global Investors, gives a brief recap on events in 2014 and his outlook for markets for the second half of the year.
