Big themes at Morningstar Investment Conference 2012

Several themes emerged at last week’s Morningstar Investment Conference:

• Don’t panic 1: “It’s hard to imagine the Eurozone coming apart” (Michael Hasenstab, Franklin Templeton)
• Don’t panic 2: “For China to experience a hard landing would require two unlikely near-term events… a massive overtightening error, and a banking crisis” (Michael Hasenstab, Franklin Templeton)
• The best growth opportunities worldwide are the formerly biggest risks — emerging markets (Michael Hasenstab, Franklin Templeton; and Matthew McLennan, First Eagle, an anti-thematic investor who seeks royalty-like streams from emerging markets: Mexican television, Thai beverages, Korean confections)
• Commodities, timber, farmland, fertilizer, food (“There will be rolling crises of resource availability in the next decades,” Jeremy Grantham, GMO)
• Europe as a dangerous but possible value play (several)
• Southeast Asia (several)

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