DoubleLine’s Jeffrey Sherman and Sam Lau welcome Dr. Robert Funk, a political analyst at GlobalSource Partners, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Chile, and a political risk consultant and partner at Andes Risk Group. Dr. Funk visits the show to discuss the political situation in Chile and economic environment in a country he was once chided for focusing on because it was boring. Chile is boring no more. Dr. Funk recounts the backdrop that led to the protests of 2019, which were sparked by a hike in subway fares (5:46). The government response to the unrest was a proposed constitutional convention (9:15), a voter-approved process that he says has kind of gone off the rails. Dr. Funk describes the workings of the convention, which he says is dominated by the central and far left, and how a focus on representation over stability is leading to the drafting of the world’s first woke constitution (12:26), which he believes will affect investment at some point. Other topics covered by Dr. Funk and Messrs. Sherman and Lau include the popularity of Chilean President Gabriel Boric (15:14), the outlook for nationalization and royalties around Chile’s resources (23:21), the government’s goal of deficit reduction (26:37) and what Dr. Funk sees as a period of lingering uncertainty (35:51). This episode was recorded March 24, 2022.
Jeffrey Sherman, DoubleLine’s Deputy Chief Investment Officer, is a thought leader, portfolio manager and public speaker in the industry. Mr. Sherman is a member of DoubleLine’s Fixed Income and Global Asset Allocation committees, and he serves as lead portfolio manager for the firm’s multi-sector and derivative-based strategies. In his role, Mr. Sherman guides the investment teams in developing top-down macro views and collaborative asset allocation processes throughout a market cycle. Additionally, he is a member of DoubleLine’s Executive Management Committee. In 2018, Money Management Executive named Mr. Sherman as one of “10 Fund Managers to Watch” in its yearly special report. Prior to joining DoubleLine in 2009, Mr. Sherman was a Senior Vice President at TCW, where he worked as a portfolio manager and quantitative analyst focused on fixed income and real-asset portfolios. Prior to that, he was a statistics and mathematics instructor at the University of the Pacific and Florida State University. Mr. Sherman taught Quantitative Methods for Level I candidates in the USC/CFALA CFA® Review Program for many years. He holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of the Pacific and an M.S. in Financial Engineering from Claremont Graduate University. Mr. Sherman is a CFA® charterholder.
Mr. Lau joined DoubleLine in 2009. He is a Strategist on the Fixed Income Asset Allocation (FIAA) Committee and a contributing member on the Global Asset Allocation and Macro Committees. Mr. Lau is a Portfolio Manager on DoubleLine’s strategic commodity strategy while working in portfolio management and trading for derivatives-based and multi-asset strategies, including DoubleLine's Shiller Enhanced CAPE®, Shiller Enhanced International CAPE®, Real Estate and Income, and Multi-Asset Trend strategies. He also co-hosts the Sherman Show (Twitter @ShermanShowPod, ShermanShow@Doubleline.com) and Monday Morning Minutes (Twitter @DLineMinutes, Minutes@Doubleline.com) podcasts. Prior to DoubleLine, Mr. Lau was a Vice President at TCW where he worked under Jeffrey Gundlach as a Research Analyst in the Mortgage Group. He holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
