Mauboussin On Capital Allocation In Different Economies

Last summer Michael Mauboussin, managing director and head of Global Financial Strategies at Credit Suisse Group AG, gave investors a detailed explanation of the five principles he uses to evaluate capital allocation decisions: zero-based capital allocation, funding strategies instead of projects, avoiding capital rationing, zero tolerance for poor growth, and knowing the value of your assets. He used historical capital allocation trends in the US to highlight his points, but asset allocation can and should vary between economies.

Now Mauboussin has returned to the theme of global capital allocations to help investors understand why regional trends can be so different outside the US (n.b. all graphs refer to the top 1000 companies in the region excluding financial services and...