Fabric

We are on the cusp of a seismic reshuffling of the world’s population that will move forward to affect the world’s economies, societies and governments over the next few years, and then move with increasing momentum over the rest of this century. We have a less-than-replacement fertility rate in the developed world. with Korea having the lowest fertility rate of the bunch. It will soon see its population decline. China’s is already declining, with projections for it to be half of what it is today by the end of the century. At the same time, the demographic tide is rising in most of the developing world. India is projected to have double the population in its cities by 2050. If you have been to Mumbai recently, think of what it will look like with another Mumbai layered on the one now. The economic problems are immediately evident. Labor shortages on the one hand, more mouths to feed and rampant unemployment on the other. Less evident are how this spills over to social issues, like the fraying of the implied social contract between those of working age and and the aged as that ratio increases. These stresses have issues for governments. The minority will be toiling away while the larger bulge in the retired cohort will have the largest voting block. And military power will drop — unless people are replaced in warfare, which is a topic for another time. There is one effect we are already seeing that spans all of this: migration. This has come to mind because of the recent riots in Great Britain. Of course we can look closer to home for this, pegged to a news story on the U.S. - Mexican border any week you choose. There are two themes that come from this for the nature of countries and societies. One is shorter term there is the ant-immigation movement centered on "stealing jobs". This is short-term, and possibly more apparent than real, because some jobs are going wanting and because when the wok force finally is in decline, there will be more and more jobs that simply can't be filled. The other is longer-term and social/cultural: The clash of cultures. If poorly managed this will create social tenstions that will pull on the fabric of the society. If you have been looking at my LinkedIn over the past while, I am interested in the the decline of civilization from a systems perspective. See this post: https://lnkd.in/eQAuFbYc To get a sense of where the impact of demographics can land us, check out what happened to the Hittite Empire, Mycenaean Greece, and the Akkadian Empire. Illustration is the population pyramid for China in 2053, from the United Nations via populationpyramid.net

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Managing Director, Head of Wealth Management Product at MSCI Inc.!

After 35 plus years of working in the wealth advisory and family office space and with Fabric Risk's recent acquisition by Morgan Stanley Capital Investments, Inc. (MSCI Inc.), which I had the honor of Co-Founding with Rick Bookstaber and Govinda Quish, I have decided to retire. Over these years I have had the pleasure of working with, and serving so very many amazing professionals in this space that it would take me far too long to thank them each in this note. You know who you are and I'm indebted for the priceless experiences of spending time with you, learning and helping to make the world a better place for people seeking peace of mind and harmony within their financial and personal lifes. I will continue to seek out Board and Philantrophic roles so feel free to reach out if those arise and you believe I can be of service. I wish you all the very best of success, health and life happiness!

Excited to announce that Fabric is now part of MSCI! Together we will accelerate wealth managers’ abilities to consistently implement their investment guidance while meeting their client’s personal preferences and delivering customization at scale. Find out more - https://ms.spr.ly/6042ii9oQ

I am so very proud of the entire Fabric Team and of course my Co-Founding Partners, Rick Bookstaber, Govinda Quish and Nick Rinard for the exciting news today shared by MSCI Inc. and their impending acquisition of our firm, Fabric Risk. What an honor and joy its been to work beside such fine professionals and now we will be able to leverage the powerful capabilities of MSCI Inc. and their amazing team! Onward to even more impactful ways to help advisors to help their clients manage risk in portfolio design, implementation and monitoring.