What are the key takeaways from this Masters in Business episode?

Key insights include: **Freedom-weighted methodology:** The index uses 87 variables measuring civil, political, and economic freedoms from Cato Institute to weight countries, automatically excluding worst offenders while traditional indices market-cap weight autocracies.; **China performance gap:** Since 1995, China's market returned roughly 100% total return versus S&P 500's 2,700%, as state-owned enterprises prioritize government interests over shareholders, subsidizing authoritarian control instead of maximizing returns.; **Russia exclusion advantage:** FRDM never held Russia while it comprised top 10 holdings in MSCI emerging markets indices, protecting investors when Russian stocks dropped to zero after Ukraine invasion, demonstrating autocracy risk pricing failures.

What did Perth Toll discuss on Masters in Business?

Perth Tolley explains how her Freedom 100 EM Index ETF excludes authoritarian regimes from emerging markets, outperforming traditional indices by avoiding China, Russia, and other autocracies. Key topics include: **Freedom-weighted methodology:** The index uses 87 variables measuring civil, political, and economic freedoms from Cato Institute to weight countries, automatically excluding worst offenders while traditional indices market-cap weight autocracies.; **China performance gap:** Since 1995, China's market returned roughly 100% total return versus S&P 500's 2,700%, as state-owned enterprises prioritize government interests over shareholders, subsidizing authoritarian control instead of maximizing returns..

How long is this episode of Masters in Business?

This episode is 17 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

Masters in Business

At The Money: Better Results By NOT Investing with Dictators!

January 14, 2026

17 min episode · 2 min read

Perth Toll

Episode

17 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Investing, Product & Tech Trends, Economics & Policy

AI-Generated Summary

Published Jan 15, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Freedom-weighted methodology: The index uses 87 variables measuring civil, political, and economic freedoms from Cato Institute to weight countries, automatically excluding worst offenders while traditional indices market-cap weight autocracies.
✓China performance gap: Since 1995, China's market returned roughly 100% total return versus S&P 500's 2,700%, as state-owned enterprises prioritize government interests over shareholders, subsidizing authoritarian control instead of maximizing returns.
✓Russia exclusion advantage: FRDM never held Russia while it comprised top 10 holdings in MSCI emerging markets indices, protecting investors when Russian stocks dropped to zero after Ukraine invasion, demonstrating autocracy risk pricing failures.

What It Covers

Perth Tolley explains how her Freedom 100 EM Index ETF excludes authoritarian regimes from emerging markets, outperforming traditional indices by avoiding China, Russia, and other autocracies.

Key Questions Answered

•Freedom-weighted methodology: The index uses 87 variables measuring civil, political, and economic freedoms from Cato Institute to weight countries, automatically excluding worst offenders while traditional indices market-cap weight autocracies.
•China performance gap: Since 1995, China's market returned roughly 100% total return versus S&P 500's 2,700%, as state-owned enterprises prioritize government interests over shareholders, subsidizing authoritarian control instead of maximizing returns.
•Russia exclusion advantage: FRDM never held Russia while it comprised top 10 holdings in MSCI emerging markets indices, protecting investors when Russian stocks dropped to zero after Ukraine invasion, demonstrating autocracy risk pricing failures.

Notable Moment

A Russian client told Tolley in 2014 that investing in Russia felt like funding terrorism, eight years before the Ukraine invasion proved the prescience of avoiding authoritarian regimes for portfolio protection.

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