The US market is no longer the only highly liquid, highly regulated and highly transparent market in the world. Several of the developed markets would argue that they are better regulated or more transparent and just about as liquid. Some of the emerging markets are closing fast on one or more of those criteria. So, the US is not the only game in town. That is reason number one.

We think that the outlook for a lot of the globe is more amenable to investors than here at home. The outlook for the US economy and US corporate profits (and so US stock markets) isn’t as favorable as it once was. The demographic argument that we just aren’t creating as many highly skilled, highly motivated and highly productive workers as we once did is a big piece of this. We used to grow by 3% or more a year in population. Now, we grow barely 1% and largely due to immigration (legal and illegal). Productivity adds to that and gives us a potential, long-term GDP that is lower than our history and lower than many, more promising opportunities. That is reason two. Read more