James Montier: A Man from a Different Time

In this white paper, James Montier, a member of the GMO Asset Allocation team, discusses the importance of dividends in investing.

As those who know me can attest, I’ve never worried about being fashionable.   Not for me, the fads and fashions of this contemporary age.  Indeed, I’m known affectionately to some of my colleagues as “the Amish,” for my shunning of the modern world.  Touch-screen technology and person-less check-ins at airports haunt my nightmares.   Perhaps I am just a man from a different time.

Given these predilections, it is little wonder that I often sit and stare at the farce that passes for modern day investment.   The churn and burn of an 8-month average holding period is anathema to me.   Call me old-fashioned, but I like to focus on the things that matter, both in life and in investing.To those who charge around in markets trying to guess the next quarter’s make-believe earnings number, the concept of dividends seems wholly irrelevant.  However, to those with an attention span measured in longer than milliseconds – who are few and far between, to judge from today’s markets – dividends are a vital element of return.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36376547/A-Man-From-a-Different-Time-James-Montier