Book Bits | 11 February 2017

new.am.economy● Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable
By Jeffrey D. Sachs
Summary via publisher (Columbia University Press)
In this passionate and powerful book—part manifesto, part plan of action—the renowned economist Jeffrey D. Sachs offers a practical strategy to move America, seemingly more divided than ever, toward a new consensus: sustainable development. Sustainable development is a holistic approach that emphasizes economic, social, and environmental objectives in shaping policy. In focusing too much on economic growth, the United States has neglected rising economic inequality and dire environmental threats. Now, even growth is imperiled.
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Research Review | 10 February 2017 | Portfolio Strategy

Liquid Alternative Mutual Funds versus Hedge Funds
Jonathan S. Hartley (University of Pennsylvania)
February 1, 2017
Despite the rapid rise of the number of liquid alternative mutual funds (LAMFs) available to retail investors in recent years, few studies have compared how their return and risk characteristics differ from their hedge fund counterparts across their entire history. Being among the first comprehensive studies to look at over two decades of LAMF performance, we use risk based factors to compare the performance of LAMFs to hedge funds both in aggregate and broken down by investment styles including equity long-short, market neutral, multi-strategy and managed futures. Overall, we find that LAMFs underperform hedge funds on average by 1-2% per year on a net-of-fee basis when controlling for standard risk factors. These findings provide important implications for investors seeking hedge fund-like returns while considering the importance of liquidity, transparency, and fees as well as for policymakers who have recently proposed imposing derivative position limits on 1940 Act investment vehicles.
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Tail-Risk Analysis In R: Part II — Extreme Value Theory

The financial crisis of 2008 devastated portfolios far and wide and brought the global economy to the brink of collapse. It was a disaster, but there was at least one positive outcome from the debacle: a wider recognition that tail risk is a real and present danger that’s forever lurking. The challenge is deciding how to model and manage the risk. You won’t find any easy solutions, but there are practical tools for estimating a portfolio’s vulnerability.
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Book Bits | 4 February 2017

● Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
By Sheelah Kolhatkar
Review via Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Steve Cohen had a target on his back. The government was determined to prove that the hedge fund manager, known on Wall Street for eye-popping annual returns of 30 percent, made some of his billions trading on inside information. Sheelah Kolhatkar, a staff writer at the New Yorker (and a former correspondent for this magazine), has written a fast-paced tale of how the feds worked for almost a decade to build a case against him, and why they couldn’t indict him, in Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
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January Employment Rises Sharply

Private-sector employment rebounded in January, beating expectations by a wide margin, according to this morning’s release from the US Labor Department. US companies added 237,000 workers last month, the strongest monthly increase since last July and well above December’s modest gain of 165,000.
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