There’s a phrase many people reach for when discussing the United States – American Exceptionalism – which in its simplest terms encapsulates the idea that the US is an exceptional society with a combination of attributes no other country possesses. This is, unsurprisingly, a controversial topic and even less surprisingly, one that’s been hijacked for political purposes in recent years. To save time, and to avoid dancing around the topic, let’s put our cards on the table and say that we think there’s a strong case in favour of exceptionalism, but perhaps using the word ‘exceptional’ might not, on its own, be the best way to keep a cool head when it comes to investment.
We recently had cause to rewatch Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Waltz, which documents the final performance of the group of Canadian-American musicians known simply as The Band. One could be forgiven for drawing a blank on The Band, given its unexceptional name. The music, on the other hand, is truly exceptional and is a core part of the story of popular music that perhaps UK listeners have, with the passage of time, come to overlook.
BlackRock Sustainable American Income (BRSA) is a possible offering for investors who want an explicitly ESG-focussed trust, and BRSA voluntarily conforms to SFDR Article 8, the so-called ‘light green’ EU definition of an ESG fund. The team who manage BRSA are long-standing value investors, with or without an ESG-specific mandate, and 2022 provided a reminder that value-investing can provide very different outcomes to the overall market, with both BRSA and its corresponding index up over 3% against a falling market.
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