J. V. Bruni and Company
1528 North Tejon Street
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80907
(719) 575-9880 or (800) 748-3409
J. V. Bruni and Company1528 North Tejon Street Colorado Springs, Colorado 80907 (719) 575-9880 or (800) 748-3409
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Triumph of the Optimists,
by Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton.  There is
more valuable data in this comprehensive book than in any other that I
have reviewed. The authors, all from the London Business School,
present 101 years of extremely useful data on stock, bond and treasury
bill investments in 16 countries (namely Australia, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United
States). The title of this detailed 2002 work comes from the authors’
conclusion that over the long run, those risk-takers who optimistically
invested in stocks triumphed in investing. Among other noteworthy
topics, Dimson, Marsh and Staunton devote considerable effort to
discussing what the
“equity risk premium” (the difference between
returns on equity investments and risk-free alternatives) has been
historically, and they address arguments as to what it should be in the
future. Though not an inexpensive book at roughly $100, the dozens of
revealing charts and graphs alone are worth the book’s price. In short,
this book is without peer in terms of big-picture, international
investment analysis. |
“This book is history at its most challenging and illuminating. The facts are astonishing, the presentation dazzling, the analysis brilliant, and the lessons profound.” Peter Bernstein |