GMO is a global investment management firm committed to providing sophisticated clients with superior asset management solutions and services. As of March 31, 2011, GMO managed nearly $108 billion* in client assets using a blend of traditional judgments with innovative quantitative methods to find undervalued securities and markets. (GMO website)
Jeremy Grantham, who co-founded GMO in 1977, is the chief investment strategist and is an active member of GMO’s asset allocation division.
Summary of the Summary
The world is using up its natural resources at an alarming rate, and this has caused a permanent shift in their value. We all need to adjust our behavior to this new environment. It would help if we did it quickly.
Summary
Until about 1800, our species had no safety margin and lived, like other animals, up to the limit of the food supply, ebbing and flowing in population.
From about 1800 on the use of hydrocarbons allowed for an explosion in energy use, in food supply, and, through the creation of surpluses, a dramatic increase in wealth and scientific progress.
Since 1800, the population has surged from 800 million to 7 billion, on its way to an estimated 8 billion, at minimum.
The rise in population, the ten-fold increase in wealth in developed countries, and the current explosive growth in developing countries have eaten rapidly into our finite resources of hydrocarbons and metals, fertilizer, available land, and water.