ONE thing you are guaranteed from a conversation with fund manager James Anderson about Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust is a big and thoughtful global perspective.
With good reason, he is unconvinced about the UK’s ability to create the big global companies of tomorrow. But he sees plenty of opportunity for investment elsewhere.
California-based Tesla, Scottish Mortgage’s second-biggest holding, has been a pioneer in both the electric and driverless vehicle arenas, technology he believes will bring huge change.
He said: “The disruption that implies for the car industry, the oil industry, the utility industry is absolutely profound.”
He noted driving was a huge source of jobs for middle-aged, working class men in the US.
Former US president Barack Obama, visiting Scotland in May, emphasised people must be able to earn a decent wage as technological advances brought huge change.
Mr Anderson also flagged the “real change” that will come from advances in healthcare technology, noting the potential of genomics and gene sequencing to change the approach to cancer. He said: “From humanity’s point of view, that is just fabulous.”
But he also flagged the huge implications of this change for big traditional pharmaceuticals companies and for economic output and inflation.
Mr Anderson is right when he makes the point that politicians must prepare people for the profound implications of “extraordinary transformations” of economies through technological advances. People will have the best chance of making a decent wage with knowledge, and policy-makers’ support.
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