Investing in US in 1970-1990

The post-World War II era and its corollary in other markets of the world ended after a generation, almost simultaneously, with academic studies on efficient markets achieving prominence in the United States. Firms capitalized on this phase shift by introducing index products and popularizing valuation shifts and new valuation techniques that are all price-related. As the dictum shifted to "buy low, sell high," it was characterized by the emergence of new investment folk heroes like Warren Buffett. A few firms, Batterymarch among them, popularized valuation techniques for institutional investors, giving voice to this newly emerged market style in the United States.

In Europe and Asia, internationally dominant companies, which looked very much like the nifty fifty, appeared popular for investing. Siemens, Hitachi, Sony, Philips, Bayer and their counterparts became components of more venturesome US institutional portfolios and appeared as the first equity holdings of some of the more fixed-income-oriented institutional holdings outside the United States.

And exactly the same pattern seen in the United States during 194570 was repeated, except in different places, in different markets.

Development institutions then shifted their attention from the devastated areas of World War II to the poorer countries suffering from population explosion. In many cases, these were agrarian-based economies with little ability to soften the shocks and cycles inherent in farming. These markets that had previously been worrying about subsistence began to establish the basis for market economies. Largely influenced by government programs, some of these countries began developing market structures.