You may like technology ( who doesn't these days?) or the energy sector ( where would we be without it?) - but if you're making a longterm bet as an investor, there's a lot going for Big Tobacco. It's not just that tobacco boasts the best historical performance of allU. S. industries. The industry's future seems especially bright. As marijuana gradually becomes a legal drug, Big Tobacco is poised to dominate the market. According to the 2015 edition of Credit Suisse's Global Investment Returns Yearbook, a dollar invested in tobacco in 1900 would have turned into $ 6.3 million by the end of 2014, by far the best performance of all the industries that existed at the start of the 20th century. [continues 549 words]
The world's elder statesmen have a problem when it comes to drug policy. They are increasingly coming out in favour of broad legalisation, but their message is having a hard time getting through thanks to decades of anti-drug propaganda from the governments in which they participated. Three years ago, a group called the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report denouncing the "war on drugs" for increasing violence and failing to curb consumption. It got a lot of attention because its members included such luminaries as former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former United Nations secretary- general Kofi Annan, former US secretary of state George Schultz, former North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief Javier Solana and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. These are serious, powerful men, not potheads or irresponsible anarchists. [continues 481 words]
