停印！（2010年1月21日）

GMO QUARTERLY LETTER January 2010 Stop the Presses! (January 21, 2010) Jeremy Grantham The Good News … … and the Bad News Volckerization Supremely Extreme: Another “Day That Will Live in Infamy” In a remarkable development, a Volcker plan for GlassSteagall-lite has been proposed by the Administration. One Five Supreme Court justices today announced that not only minute Paul Volcker, the only financial administrator not are corporations people and that their money is free speech called Brooksley Born who has shown any real backbone – this is old hat and a very ugly hat at that – but now, there in the last 30 years, is so out in the cold that his toes must should be no limit to the money they spend to influence have frozen off, and the next – hey, Presto! – his ideas political outcomes. This would be one thing if corporations are put forward lock, stock, and barrel and Geithner and really were “democratic associations” of humans that the Summers are left scrambling to take some credit for the Founding Fathers may have wanted to protect. They are, plan and pretend they hadn’t been dissing Volcker up until instead, small oligarchies of top management. Thus, the eight seconds ago for what they thought were his antique top management of major oil and coal companies can and unnecessary ideas that were far too harsh on our poor decide what political outcomes they want to promote, banking system. Wow! Well, these new ideas are all say, unlimited production of carbon dioxide (none of their good stuff as far as I’m concerned, and entirely justified. CEOs apparently has grandchildren!), utterly without Everyone in Congress, and anywhere else for that matter, any approval of their decisions by the millions of actual knows prop desk trading (banks trading their own capital owners. The financial power of corporations was already like a hedge fund) is a conflict of interest. They may or in danger of overwhelming the democratic process in may not think it important or that it caused this or that Congress and this makes the damage potentially unlimited problem, but they know it’s a real conflict. Congressmen, and puts the Court’s seal of approval on it. So let’s do it in since when wasn’t conflict of interest and poor ethical style and have a name change. The U.C.A. has a familiar standards reason enough to change the law? But since we look: The United Corporations of America! bring it up, of course prop trading was indeed the rot at the heart of our financial problems (see last quarter’s Letter).

Watching traders take home their $28 million bonus sent a powerful message to lowly salesmen and packagers of asset-backed securities, for example, to get out there and really take some risk. This rot spread to the very top, and pretty soon chairmen of boards were exhorting CEOs to leverage up and look more like some much more profitable rival that resembled a hedge fund rather than an investment bank. Thus encouraged – or intimidated – some CEOs just kept on dancing right off the cliff. Let’s learn from our near disaster. Viva Volcker!

GMO QUARTERLY LETTER January 2010 What a Decade!

Jeremy Grantham The Patagonia Insight the bumpy (bumpy, but not so disastrous) 1970s than the economically lucky 1990s and early 2000s.

I just returned from a long vacation in Patagonia. I took long hikes that gave me lots of time to think about life In contrast to predicting the impossibly difficult real world, and death and Bernanke. It was an ideal time to have predicting market outcomes is relatively straightforward. an inspiration, and I had one. This is it: sometimes, Profit margins and P/E ratios always seem to pass through whatever the situation and however hard you try, you will fair value if, and it’s a big if, you can just be patient enough. not have an inspiration! This is not to say that insights Normalcy is what we assume in our 7-year forecasts and are not available, just that someone else is having them. in our old 10-year forecasts. We had one for the last There is always a great temptation to convince yourself decade, a 10-year forecast starting on December 31, 1999 that you have an insight, and then to push it. It can be and ending December 31, 2009, which is summarized in very, very expensive. Exhibit 1. We forecast then that the egregiously overpriced It is easy today to be confused, for this is a remarkably S&P would underperform cash and everything else – what complex time. I argued two years ago that we were all should you expect starting at 33 times earnings? – and we part of an elaborate experiment, the inputs to which were assumed that emerging equities would do extremely well completely new. We had an unprecedentedly low risk despite a 0.7 correlation with the S&P, because they were premium on every asset class and a stew of new and badly cheap. The efficient market people, who apparently will understood financial instruments. That was bad enough, take their faith with them to the grave, will say we were but isn’t the picture even more complicated and without lucky, in spite of the one in several hundred thousand precedent now? We have never in our lifetime seen a odds of being correct. “Preposterous. How can the risky financial and economic bust such as the one we just had. asset underperform cash for 10 years?” you can hear them We have never had two great asset bubbles break in the say. But we would say it was just the normal grinding of same decade. We have never wiped out so much wealth regression to the mean. It’s an awfully normal world we in all asset classes as we have this time: $20 trillion at its inhabit, in the long term. It’s only the short-term zigs and worst point, on our reckoning. We have never experienced zags that drive us all crazy, and right now we should brace such rapid deterioration in the government’s budget and ourselves for some very odd and unpredictable short-term in the balance sheet of the Fed, nor witnessed such moral market effects brought on by the recent crisis and the hazard, with bailouts flying around like this. What hope massive governmental response. But the bigger danger is do we really have in making accurate predictions of how that once again the Fed is playing with fire! the world will recover from all of this, and in what ways it will be changed? Very little. Playing with Fire My view of the economy’s future is boringly unchanged: Whenever the Fed attempts to stimulate the economy “Seven Lean Years.” I still believe that after the initial by facilitating low rates and rapid money growth, the kick of the stimulus, we will move into a multi-year economy responds. But it does so reluctantly, whereas headwind as we sort out our extreme imbalances. This is asset prices respond with enthusiasm. In our studies of the likely to give us below-average GDP growth over seven Presidential Cycle we have shown that, historically, where years and more than our share of below-average profit modest Fed stimulus and some moral hazard hardly move margins and P/E ratios, so that it would feel more like the dial on the economy in the third year of the cycle, they Exhibit 1 Performance of GMO Asset Class Forecasts for the Decade Dec. 31, 1999 to Dec. 31, 2009 GMO 10-Yr Forecast Dec-31-99 Actual Estimated (% Real 10-Yr Actual Asset Class Rank Return/Yr) Return* Rank U.S. REITs 1 10.0 7.4 3 Emerging Market Equities 2 7.8 8.1 1 Emerging Country Debt 3 6.1 7.5 2 U.S. TIPS 4 4.3 4.9 4 Barclays Capital U.S. Gov't. Debt 5 3.8 3.5 6 International Small Cap 6 3.4 3.5 7 Foreign Bonds 7 3.0 3.9 5 U.S. Small 8 2.5 2.3 8 U.S. T-Bills 9 2.1 0.3 9 EAFE 10 0.4 -1.4 10 S&P 500 11 -1.9 -3.5 11 Correlation of rank order: 93.6% Probability of picking same or better rank order randomly: 1 in 550,000 * Actual compound annual real returns are for the period 12/31/99 to 12/31/09.

The accuracy of past predictions does not guarantee that current or future predictions will be accurate either with respect to the ranking of asset classes over a 10-year period, the absolute levels of return, or results over shorter time periods. The accuracy of the forecast rankings and returns in the asset class forecasts generally varies from period to period. Source: GMO push stocks up almost 15% a year above normal and risky the Administration to begin to get the point that low rates stocks even more. This effect echoes around the world as held too long promote asset bubbles, which are extremely a tribute to the influence of the Fed. Yet the Fed has been dangerous to the economy and financial system. Now, reckless in facilitating rapid asset booms in the tech and however, the penny is dropping, and I realize the Fed is housing bubbles. As we know, the official policy remains unwittingly willing to risk a third speculative phase, which to avoid trying to contain asset bubbles, but to ameliorate is supremely dangerous this time because its arsenal now the pain of any setbacks should asset prices reverse course is almost empty. and collapse. Indeed, the Fed claims never to have been I do not regret the bailout, although half as much to sure that bubbles even exist. Non-financial corporations bankers and more to people with hammers insulating and the Treasury were lucky that they went into the tech roofs would have been better. With ships lining up by bubble in good financial shape and into the housing bubble the hundreds outside Singapore harbor, unloaded for want in reasonable shape, except for the overstretched consumer. of letters of credit and other basic financial services, our Now, though, after our massive stimulus efforts, the Fed’s financial leaders had better have acted fast. And they did. balance sheet is unrecognizably bad, and the government Not efficiently. Not fairly. And certainly not frugally. But debt literally looks as if we have had a replay of World War they thawed the global real world, which was freezing II. The consumer, meanwhile, is approximately as badly rapidly. leveraged as ever, which is to say the worst in history.

Given this, we would be well advised to avoid a third go- I thought in return for the pain we had all learned some around in the bubble forming and breaking business. Up lessons. I was naïve. Congress will probably stay in the until the last few months, I was counting on the Fed and pocket of the financial world, and few useful changes will GMO 2 Quarterly Letter – What a Decade! – January 2010 be made. Investors, traditionally reluctant to burn their typical relief rally. Now it seems likely to go through fingers badly twice in a generation, line up to buy risk and 1200 and possibly higher. The market, however, is worth bid down spreads as if eager to suffer for a third time in a only 850 or so; thus, any advance from here will make it decade. Scientists believe that some wild animals that are once again seriously overpriced, although the high quality threatened constantly by predators quickly forget the worst component is still relatively cheap. EAFE equities seem episodes lest they become so completely traumatized that a little overpriced, emerging markets more so, and fixed they dare not return to nibbling grass. Normally, investors income seems badly overpriced, especially cash, which is appear to have longer memories than rabbits, but not this awful. Exhibit 2 shows our current 7-year forecasts. time! And the Fed, having learned nothing, still worships at the Greenspan altar. Overstimulus was painful in the The real trap here, and a very old one at that, is to be 2000 break and extremely painful in 2008, but the Fed seduced into buying equities because cash is so painful. soldiers on with its failed strategy like Field Marshal Haig Equity markets almost always peak when rates are low, in World War I (“The machine gun is a much over-rated so moving in desperation away from low rates into weapon.”). substantially overpriced equities always ends badly.

So all investors should brace for the chance that speculation So this is a dilemma. In 2010, value purists will have will continue for longer than would have seemed remotely to struggle increasingly with the Fed’s continued juicing possible six months ago. I thought last April that the of the markets. In order to control real risk – the risk of market (S&P 500) would scoot up to 1000 to 1100 on a losing money – they will be forced to take the increasing Exhibit 2 GMO 7-Year Asset Class Return Forecasts* As of December 31, 2009 Stocks Bonds Other 8% - Real Return (Asset Class Index) 6.5 % Long-term Historical U.S. Equity Return 6% Annual Real Return Over 7 Years 4% 6.8% 6.0% 4.7% 4.6% 2% 3.9% 2.1% 1.3% 1.1% 0.5% 0.8% 0% 0.3% -0.6% -2% U.S. U.S. U.S. high Int'l. Int'l. Equities U.S. bo nds Int'l. bo nds B o nds B o nds U.S. M anaged equities equities quality equities 2 equities 2 (emerging) (go v't.) (go v't.) (emerging) (inflatio n treasury Timber (large cap) (small cap) (large cap) (small cap) indexed) (30 Days to 2 Yrs.)

Est. Range of 7-Yr. Annualized Returns ±6.5 ±7.0 ±6.0 ±6.5 ±7.0 ±10.5 ±4.0 ±4.0 ±8.5 ±1.5 ±1.5 ±5.5 *The chart represents real return forecasts1 for several asset classes. These forecasts are forward-looking statements based upon the reasonable beliefs of GMO and are not a guarantee of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from the forecasts above.

1 Long-term inflation assumption: 2.5% per year. 2 Return forecasts for international equities are ex-Japan.

Source: GMO Quarterly Letter – What a Decade! – January 2010 3 GMO career and business risk of lagging a rising market. times tend to be: later in bull markets, or when they are Our choice – by no means a “solution” – is to only very relatively cheaper than the rest of the market, or both. (More slightly underweight global equities on the grounds that, quantitatively, high quality stocks have outperformed in when tilted to quality, they are still adequate in terms of more than 40% of up months and approximately 60% of return potential. We also have to swallow our distaste the time when they were relatively very cheap, as they for parking the rest in unattractive fixed income. And if are now.) For the record, they also outperformed in 1929 the equity markets are indeed driven higher in the next and 1972, at the end of the first two great bull markets of six months, which, unlike my view of last summer, now the 20th century, and held level in 1999. In a continuing looks to be at least 50/50, we will very slowly withdraw rally, even level pegging for quality would be a great equities: eight times bitten, once shy, so to speak, for improvement over 2009. And, if the market surprises in these situations we typically beat a much too rapid me and goes into an early setback in 2010, then quality and enthusiastic retreat. If we do see a substantially stocks should outperform by a lot. What could cause higher market in the next few months, we will probably an early setback would be some random bunching up of underperform, but likely not by much. unpleasant seven-lean-years data: two or three bad news There is perhaps, though, one saving grace: the risky items in a week or two might do the trick. This would stocks have already been driven to extreme overpricing. suit me – cheaper is always better – but given the Fed’s Further attempts to drive the market higher (they may not intractability, it seems less likely than some further gains. be deliberate attempts, but does it matter?) will probably For the longer term, the outperformance of high quality result in a much broader advance in which high quality U.S. blue chips compared with the rest of U.S. stocks is, stocks should hold their own or even outperform. Believe in my opinion, “nearly certain” (which phrase we at GMO it or not, they can outperform on the upside, and these traditionally define as more than a 90% probability).

Why Do They Keep Messing with Our Great Health Care System?

(Part of an occasional series of unappreciated statistics) Spend the most . . . . . . get the least Total Expenditure on Health, OECD Life Expectancy, per Capita, US$ Purchasing Power Parity Total Population at Birth, Years $7,000 ... ... 84 ... ... $6,000 82 $5,000 $4,000 USD Years 76 $3,000 $2,000 $1,000 70 $0 ... ... 68 ... ...

Turkey Poland Mexico Hungary Czech Republic United States Slovak Republic Norway Luxembourg Switzerland Austria United States Turkey Hungary Mexico Median Korea Italy Poland Czech Republic Slovak Republic Switzerland Spain Median Japan Iceland Watch out when the Turks, Poles, and Czechs decide to cut back on smoking and spend a bit more on health care. Enough said.

Data source: OECD Health Data 2009 GMO 4 Quarterly Letter – What a Decade! – January 2010 A Brief Review of the Decade our flagship strategy, had a similar pattern, and ended the decade modestly up on the benchmark (+1.05% per It really was the best and the worst of times. The U.S. year1). Our fixed income division suffered a spectacular seemed to approach dysfunctionality in Congress and problem in the financial crisis, but came rocketing back other leadership, especially the Fed, and our reputation in the recovery, as it turned out that nearly all of those sank overseas. Japan was still missing in action for the super triple-A asset-backed securities really were money second decade in a row, and Europe seemed toothless good, and almost all of ours paid off or look as if they in most respects, but especially in political influence. will. On a 10-year basis, our Emerging Debt Strategy The developed world showed off its middle-age spread: was the very best, while the rest of the fixed income GDP growth rate slowed everywhere, and its financial strategies were moderately behind. All in all, though, the superiority over the developing world, which was exalted decade for us held some disappointments. We had done for the first eight years of the decade, was revealed as somewhat better in the previous two decades, and we are hollow by the end. The developed world’s lack of ability confident that we can do better in the next one. We are to make hard decisions on a dangerous climate situation better prepared now, I believe, than we were 10 years ago. was also stunningly revealed by the decade’s end, and for Even so, the great majority of our strategies outperformed, the whole decade the greatest polluter, the U.S., was a drag which is not all that common in a zero sum world where on the process rather than the leader that was so needed. on average investors underperform by costs. The past The developing countries, in extraordinary contrast, had decade leaves us impressed with just how difficult this their greatest economic decade ever recorded, and dragged business has become. Our new decade’s resolution is to global growth up to very strong levels despite the slowing move from generally good top-down decisions to better developed economies. They seemed far more stable in detailed implementation, and we believe we have staffed every respect than their previous reputation. To rub it in, up and, we trust, wised up enough to make this objective they survived the banking crisis in general far better than achievable. We are certainly one of the few firms that we all did. And China for one began to move faster than we has taken advantage of the unusual availability of good in developing alternative energy and in making a good start investment people to materially increase our headcount (bad for us) on becoming the leader in this critical area. and, I hope, brain count, in the last two years. We are very aware that this is a much more competitive industry than it was in December 1999 or December 1989.

Reviewing GMO’s Decade GMO’s decade was also full of ups and downs. Asset Postscript on the Decade’s Performance allocation, helped by two bubbles breaking, had a lot to get its teeth into. Perhaps for allocators, the decade proved Going into this next decade, we start with the U.S. to be about as helpful as it ever gets. Consequently we did overpriced, so do not be conned into believing that every well, we got the big bets right (the ones that mattered), and bad decade is followed by a good one. It happened our December 1999 forecasts came close to their marks historically because when bull markets peak at only 21 by the end of the decade. Helped by this, all of our asset times, a bad decade’s return will always make them cheap. allocation strategies outperformed their benchmarks well This does not necessarily apply to a decade that started at for the decade. In our international equity strategies, we 35 times! A decade’s poor performance can still leave you had a string of great years in the 2000 tech bust and some expensive (as this one has) when it starts so overpriced. not-so-good years more recently as risky stuff dominated We did, however, come close to having good numbers for in 2006, 2007, and last year. Since the beginning of 2000, the next decade: just 9½ months ago we had felt enough though, all of those international equity strategies with 10- pain to make the next decade’s prospects look very good year records beat their benchmarks, developed markets indeed, almost everywhere more than 10% (annualized) by a lot and emerging equities by a little. U.S. Core, plus inflation on our 7-year forecast. (A decade forecast 1 Performance data quoted represents past performance and is not predictive of future performance. Returns are shown after the deduction of management fees, transaction costs, and other expenses. The returns assume the reinvestment of dividends and other income. A GIPS compliant presentation of composite performance has preceded this presentation in the past 12 months or accompanies this presentation, and is also available at www.gmo.com. Actual fees are disclosed in Part II of GMO’s Form ADV and are also available in each strategy’s compliant presentation. The information above is supplemental to the GIPS compliant presentation that was made available on GMO’s website in April of 2009.

Quarterly Letter – What a Decade! – January 2010 5 GMO would be only a little less impressive.) All of this was  The two time-tested investment tools, value (P/E ratios ruined by a rapid 65% rally, which took more than 7% a and P/B ratios) and price momentum, are now much year off our 7-year forecast! more heavily used and not so reliable as they once were, say from 1977 to 1997.

Lessons Learned in the Decade  Asset classes really are more inefficiently priced than  The Fed wields even more financial influence than we individual stocks on average, and therefore offer greater thought. opportunities for adding value and reducing risk.

 Low rates have a more powerful effect on driving  Developed countries, including the U.S., are past their financial assets than on driving the economy. prime compared with developing countries: it is indeed a new world order.  The Fed is capable of being extremely out of touch with the real world – “what housing bubble?” – plus  Education and training are the keys to increasing wealth more doctrinaire – “no, the low rates had no effect on on a sustainable basis and the U.S. is in danger of losing housing” – than anyone could have imagined. its once large edge here.

 Congress is nearly dysfunctional, primarily controlled by  We all live on an island, which can be overexploited large corporations, and hamstrung by the supermajority and turned into a barren Easter Island if we are not now routinely required in the Senate. careful. Resources are finite and biodiversity is fragile, and both must be protected. Carbon emissions are the  Government administrations can be incompetent for single greatest threat. long periods.  Being a global policeman is expensive, and somewhere  Poor leadership can really damage a country’s hard-between difficult and impossible. won reputation in a mere 10 years.  The Fed learns no lessons!  Obama is not a miracle worker!  The leadership of major corporations can be very Have a happy and prosperous new decade. All the best! lacking in insight and competence on a fairly routine basis.

GMO 6 Quarterly Letter – What a Decade! – January 2010 Appendix “Beware the Financial Industrial Complex” Let’s start with the Investment Industry component. It It is not often one gets the opportunity to debate a Nobel is so obvious in this business that it’s a zero sum game. Prize winner, but Richard Bookstaber and I went to Wall We collectively add nothing but costs. We produce no Street to debate Myron Scholes and Robert Reynolds widgets; we merely shuffle the existing value of all stocks (Putnam’s CEO) on a very topical topic: “Financial and all bonds in a cosmic poker game. At the end of each Innovation Boosts Economic Growth.” There are no year, the investment community is behind the markets in prizes for guessing which side opposed the proposition. total by about 1% costs and individuals by 2%. Richard Bookstaber, by the way, is an experienced quant And the costs have steadily grown. As our industry’s who, despite that, wrote an excellent book, A Demon of assets grew tenfold from 1989 to 2007, despite huge Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils economics of scale, the fees per dollar also grew. There of Financial Innovation – a title so superb you might think was no fee competition, contrary to theory. Why? it unnecessary to read the book, but do. a. Agency problems – we manage the other guy’s money, We squared off using the Oxford-style debate rules: and 5-minute alternating presentations, 2 minutes each to rebut, 20-minutes of give and take with the audience, and b. Asymmetric information – the agent has much more 1 minute each to summarize. The audience voted at the information than the client. beginning and again at the end of the debate. The opening Clients can’t easily distinguish talent from luck or risk poll from the 200 attendees (each of whom had forked over taking. It’s an unfair contest, nothing like the fair fight $1,500 to attend a special 2-day The Economist Magazine assumed by standard Economics. As we add new products, conference in November graced by Summers, Geithner, options, futures, CDOs, hedge funds, and private equity, and other illuminati) was, not surprisingly, in favor of aggregate fees per dollar rise. As the layers of fees and innovation to the tune of 80% to 20%. Bookstaber and layers of agents increase, so too products become more I were thrilled at this vote, as it gave us a good base for complicated and opaque, causing clients to need us more. improvement. Modesty compels me not to divulge the final tally, even though the swing to a dazzling 20% to As total fees in the past grew by 0.5%, we agents basically 80% the other way would surely justify yet more sales of reached into the clients’ balance sheets, snatched the 0.5%, Bookstaber’s book (good name for a writer). and turned it into income and GDP. Magic! But in doing so, we lowered the savings and investment rate by 0.5%.

I should reveal here that no cheap trick is beneath my So, we got a short-term GDP kick at the expense of lower contempt when it comes to debating. To prove it, I am long-term growth. going to reproduce my argument here with some modest editing.1 (This saves on the attempt at creative thought This is true with the whole financial system. Let us say so close to year-end, always at a premium, and allows that by 1965 – the middle of one of the best decades in U.S. me to show, perhaps, a less discreet side.) The truth is history – we had perfectly adequate financial services. Of that, although Oxford debating rules encourage polemic, course, adequate tools are vital. That is not the issue here. I really do care about this topic: largely unregulated new We’re debating the razzmatazz of the last 10 to 15 years. instruments really did bring us to our knees! Finance was 3% of GDP in 1965; now it is 7.5%. This is an extra 4.5% load that the real economy carries. The My Part in the Debate financial system is overfeeding on and slowing down the real economy. It is like running with a large, heavy, and I will try to make the case that our economy has a painfully growing bloodsucker on your back. It slows you down. overdeveloped financial sector.

1 Real gluttons can still catch a video of the debate by clicking on the link below: Remember, you can fast forward.

Quarterly Letter – What a Decade! – January 2010 7 GMO For 100 years the GDP Battleship grew at 3.5%. (Even a rogue element, and that the overmatched clients have the Great Depression did not change that trend.) But after allowed the agents to move toward accruing all the rents 1965 the GDP growth rate ex-finance fell to 3.2% a year. or benefits of new financial instruments. After 1982 it fell to 3.1%, and after 2000 to 2.5%, with all of these measurements to the end of 2007 before the One-minute Summary current crisis.

I will try to make the case that our economy has a painfully From society’s point of view, this additional 4.5% burden overdeveloped financial sector. works like looting or an earthquake. Both increase short-1) Beware the financial-industrial complex: they are term GDP through replacement effect, but chew up capital. eating your lunch. (And to be honest, I’ve eaten more All of the extra financial workers might as well be retirees than my fair share. It was a good lunch.) or children, in that they are supported by the rest of the workforce, but they are much, much more expensive. 2) Do not underestimate the scale of the disaster caused Economists have not studied the optimal size for finance. by the fancy new instruments combined with the belief Indeed, a leading finance journal recently rejected a paper in market efficiency. It was cosmic and may indeed on this topic, saying “Finance cannot comment on social not be over yet. There was such loss of confidence utility.” That is perhaps why it has so little! that, left to our own devices – real capitalism – more than Citi and Bank of America would have failed.

The underlying problem in the recent crisis was a This was a real run on the banks; Morgan Stanley and touching faith in capitalism. This faith was based on 50 dozens of other banks would almost certainly have years of a dominant economic theory that was shockingly gone quickly, perhaps even Goldman Sachs (leaving not based on facts but rather on unproven assumptions: us at the mercy of a truly giant J.P. Morgan?). rational expectations and the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). Believe them and you don’t have to regulate new 3) The client world pays up precisely in proportion to instruments or, indeed, anything. Capitalism will look how bamboozled it is by unnecessary complexity and after itself. So Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, and Levitt of this, among other negatives, is what the fancy new the SEC could beat back Brooksley Born when she dared instruments were offering: confusion, doubt, and to suggest regulating the new instruments. bamboozlement.

But as Keynes knew by 1934, markets are behavioral 4) As for our opponents: academics so badly want their jungles wracked by changing animal spirits that can mock theories to be right that they assume them to be so, the best laid plans. It is a world of agency problems and and with no proof. They assume not only that market the “beauty contest.” The EMH has proven to be the most participants are efficient and well-informed, but also wildly mis-specified theory in the history of finance, and that they are good and worthy citizens. But they’re the most expensive. Without it, we would have recognized all self-serving, and many are slightly wicked. As for market dysfunctionality and instituted more controls to mutual funds: they need complexity coupled with help limit the wild expansion of the financial business. We a client’s lack of confidence, or more clients would might easily have steered clear of the three-sigma (100- invest on their own. So, for them, the status quo is year) bubbles in tech and U.S. housing that led to our just fine. Finally, I urge you to vote the spirit of this present crisis. We might not even be debating this topic. issue and not the letter of the rather badly worded proposition.

With perfect timing, my friend and former partner, Paul Woolley, started a center for the study of “Capital Market PS: I would have mentioned Paul Volcker’s opinion that Dysfunctionality” at the London School of Economics. the only financial innovation useful to the country in the They have recently concluded in academese, with lots of last 20 years is the ATM, but at the time of this debate he math, that the growth of the financial world has become hadn’t made that compelling point.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are the views of Jeremy Grantham through the period ending January 25, 2010, and are subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions. This is not an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security and should not be construed as such. References to specific securities and issuers are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as, recommendations to purchase or sell such securities.

Copyright © 2010 by GMO LLC. All rights reserved.

GMO 8 Quarterly Letter – What a Decade! – January 2010