By Tom Bradley

A lot of the writing Scott and I do is aimed at breaking down common perceptions about economics and investing that are out of date or inaccurate. On that note, my friend Bing Monahan sent me an article from The Atlantic that outlines 10 economic trends that have changed significantly but are not yet fully appreciated. The ones I found most interesting were:

• Solar energy – Becoming economic ... without subsidies.
  
• CO2 emissions – Significant improvement in the U.S.
  
• Chinese demographics – Boom to bust.
  
• U.S. government debt – Improving rapidly.

Number 9 in the article refers to the trend towards passive investment management (indexing). Personally, I find this one rather boring and obviously misguided. Aren’t we within months of seeing the positive sentiment toward indexing shift back towards active management?