Morningstar Runs the Numbers

Inspired by Harper's Index (with a tip of the hat to FiveThirtyEight's Significant Digits blog), Morningstar Runs the Numbers uses a numbers-based approach to highlight recent Morningstar research, along with some outside news stories.

9.7 billion Alex Bryan uses that estimate of the world's population in 2050 in his article on an agribusiness ETF that might benefit from growth in global food consumption:

As emerging-markets populations become wealthier, they are projected to increase their consumption of meat, which will have a disproportionate impact on the demand for grain because corn and soy are common ingredients in livestock feed. It requires an estimated 5-7 pounds of grain to raise a pound of beef, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Beef is more efficient than these figures imply because a little less than half of slaughtering weight is raised on grain. Even so, small changes in livestock consumption can have significant impact on demand for grains.

25 funds

Last week it was the biggest

, this week Christine Benz looks at the U.S. mutual funds with the largest net

over the past year.

59 Using movie scores from Rotten Tomatoes, James Chapman calculated the age at which actor Robert De Niro "stopped caring."

$11 trillion Dave Sekara provides a post-Brexit vote take on the bond market:

Currently, there is over 11 trillion worth of sovereign bonds that are priced so high that if an investor purchases those bonds at current prices and holds them to maturity, they will lock in a guaranteed loss.

287,000 jobs Bob Johnson gives his perspective on the latest jobs report.

20 biases Business Insider has an infographic explaining 20 common cognitive biases.

Three-fer In an interview with Matt Coffina, Christine Benz touts the tax advantages of the health savings account:

I'm also a big fan of health savings accounts as an investment vehicle for healthy people who have the wherewithal to pay healthcare expenses out of pocket. The HSA offers the only three-fer in the whole tax code: pretax contributions, tax-free compounding, and tax-free distributions for qualified healthcare expenses.

$1,360 an ounce Jason Zweig in The Wall Street Journal on gold as an investment:

While gold is a reliable store of value over extremely long periods, most investors don't lock their money up for a couple thousand years at a time. In the shorter term, gold fluctuates so wildly that it is a surprisingly poor hedge against increases in the cost of living.

0.49%

Eric Jacobson

for

The changes are a lot more interesting on closer inspection, though, and even a little surprising. What's unusual about both isn't that they were made--mutual fund firms make these kinds of adjustments all the time--but that they were made with investors in mind rather than business considerations.

41st Once the second-tallest building in the world, Chicago's John Hancock Center is now the 41st. From an appreciation of structural engineer Fazlur Khan:

Every skyscraper ahead of it on the list of the world's tallest buildings (with the exception of the Empire State Building) is a descendant of Khan's design. Thanks to the clever structural engineer, who knew that strength comes from flexibility, the skyscraper shed its status as a relic. Today, it is how a city reinvents itself.

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