As a proportion of total fixed-assets investment the figures suggest little change (14% to 16%).
Vivendi and Vodafone will probably merge their fixed-line assets into a single entity.
"Investors should be rotating into other fixed-income assets, " Mr. Colmar says.
That's because over half the investment portfolios of both Ping An and China Life are in bonds and other fixed-income assets, while only 10% is in equities.
Investors who aren't under Uncle Sam's thumb can move their money elsewhere, bidding up prices and driving down yields on other fixed-income assets in the U.S. and offshore.
WSJ: The Intelligent Investor: Why Bondholders Should Be Worried
That was splendid for the purchasers, but rather unwise of the life companies, which had no way of hedging their liabilities with fixed-interest assets with a similarly high yield.
Research by Kristin Forbes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Marcel Fratzscher, Thomas Kostka and Roland Straub of the European Central Bank has assessed the impact of Brazilian taxes on foreign purchases of fixed-income assets between 2006 and 2011.
And as the FT points out this morning, for the first time ever UK pension funds now hold more bonds than equities: the Pensions Regulator shows that UK funds hold 43% of their assets in gilts and fixed-interest debt compared with just under 39% in equities.
These factors make fixed maturity securities and ideal choice for insurance companies, which typically invest 50-70% of their total invested assets in fixed maturity securities.
FORBES: Fed's Twisting Is No Fun For Insurance Companies Like MetLife, AIG, Hartford
In this scenario, fixed income assets tend to suffer while inflation-hedging assets benefit from the currency devaluation.
The fact is, mortgages in general, and the uniquely American 30-year fixed rate, prepayable, self-amortizing mortgages in particular are, like many long-term assets with built-in options, extremely difficult to price properly.
Fixed income investors will be forced into non-dollar based assets as Treasury yields remain at historic lows.
Developers are a big chunk of the economy-accounting for 33% of total investment in China's fixed assets last year.
Barclays Capital fixed income analysts reiterated our more constructive stance on BRIC assets this week and recommend investors consider re-engaging with risk in markets away from the European debt and banking problems in particular.
FORBES: Emerging Market Equities Punished For West's Economic Woes
That's a nice way of saying that during recent years the Harvard Management Company, the university's investment subsidiary, diverted large portions of the university's endowment assets out of safe but poky low-yield securities (as of last June fixed-income investments accounted for only 16% of Harvard's portfolio) and into what this Forbes story describes as "exotic financial instruments": derivatives, hedge funds, private equity partnerships, commodities and emerging-market equities.
The BlackRock segment manages assets on behalf of institutional and individual investors worldwide through a variety of equity, fixed income, multi-asset class, alternative and cash management separate accounts and funds, including iShares.
With a deferred annuity, you pay now and hope to accumulate assets through either a variable product that invests in equity mutual funds or a fixed product that offers bond-like returns.
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