Via LarrySiegel.org:
THE PARADOX OF WEALTH AND THE END OF HISTORY ILLUSION
William J. Bernstein
Efficient Frontier Advisors
© January 2013
Abstract
In
the wake of the recent Great Recession, pessimism about the long-run economic prospects
of the United States
has once again become fashionable. I reprise the history of this strain of
thought, and why it is at variance with the long-run improvement in the four basic
foundations of modern Western-style prosperity: scientific rationalism,
property rights buttressed by rule of law, modern capital markets, and modern
communications and transportation technologies.
Nevertheless, both theory and long-run empirical data support the notion that economic growth lowers security returns; such is the price of living in an increasingly prosperous, safe, healthy, and intellectually gratifying world.
READ THE PAPER!
This is an earlier version of a paper referred to by Abnormal Returns.
In the paper Bernstein is responding to another paper from
Larry Siegel, on
whose site Bernstein is found.
Mr. Siegel himself is no slouch. He is Research Director,
Research Foundation of the CFA Institute and the former Director of Research,
Investment Division, The Ford Foundation.
He is on the editorial boards of the Financial
Analysts Journal, The Journal of Portfolio Management, and The Journal of
Investing.
I believe this is the Siegel paper Bernstein is responding
to, via Advisor Perspectives:
