I'm no economist, having made a determination long ago to live by faith. I found this article very interesting, along with its accompanying charts, comparing the performance of two polarizing mutual funds - one based on virtue, the other upon vice.
What was particularly interesting is that the chart shows virtually (but not virtuously) identical performance trends, save for a distancing jump by the vice fund in Nov 04 and a drop by the virtue fund in Jan 05. Other than that, the two trend startlingly parallel.
Lesson to be learned? The one that stands out to me is that vice doesn't pay (at least not much better than virtue over the long run), and it offers a down side that is far more expensive.
August 1, 2005 10:53 AM