ADVERTISEMENT

The American Dream Has Emigrated

The American Dream Has Emigrated

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The concept of the American dream -- upward mobility achieved through hard work -- still exists, says Neil Dwane, this week's guest on Masters in Business. The surprise is that it has emigrated to China.

Dwane, a portfolio manager and global strategist with Allianz Global Investors, with $591 billion in assets under management, notes that economic mobility has fallen in the U.S. The children of today will the first generation that probably won't have a higher standard of living than their parents. There are certainly many advantages these young Americans will enjoy -- more leisure time, longer lifespans and better health, and broadly distributed technological innovations. However, the sense of can-do optimism has become tattered and frayed. But upward mobility is still alive and well; it’s just taken up residence in Asia, and in particular, China. Entrepreneurship and fast-growing companies are still in the process of ramping up in that region.

Dwane suggests that if you have a 30-year horizon for your risk capital, you will be amply rewarded by investing in that part of the world. The London-based strategist also noted the parallels between the U.K. and Brexit and the U.S. and Trumpism.

His favorite books are here; a transcript of our conversation is posted here.

You can stream/download the full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunesBloombergOvercast and Stitcher. Our earlier podcasts can all be found at iTunesStitcherOvercast and Bloomberg.

Next week, in a special edition of Masters in Business Live, we speak with Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital, which manages more than $120 billion in distressed-debt assets.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Barry Ritholtz is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He founded Ritholtz Wealth Management and was chief executive and director of equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.