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Masters in Business

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

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

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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Episode Transcript

I'm Hannah Fry. And as we rely more and more on artificial intelligence in every facet of our lives and businesses, I'm on a mission to find out how we can build the Internet that AI needs. Learn more later in the podcast. Support for the show comes from Public. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S and P 500, then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com/market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com/market. Paid for by Public Investing, brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA and SIPC, advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosure is available at public.com/disclosures. Small businesses are the pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities, and drive growth. Chase for business helps business owners like you with personalized guidance and convenient digital tools all in one place. With that guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther and help build a brighter future for your community. Learn more at chase.com/business. Chase for business. Make more of what's yours. The Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA. Member, FDIC. Copyright 2026. JPMorgan Chase and Company. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. Freedom. There are many problematic countries on the world stage. Not only are their political behaviors bad, but they're also unhealthy for your investment dollars. Most emerging market indexes, however, invest broadly across all of these countries regardless of their political activity. If only there was a way to avoid authoritarian regimes, dictators, and other bad actors that destroy your investing capital. As it turns out, there's a fund to do just that, investing in emerging markets without steering money to the worst countries on the planet. I'm Barry Ryfelts, and on today's edition of at the money, we're gonna discuss how to avoid those countries that are dangerous to your wealth. To help us unpack all of this and what it means for your portfolio, let's bring in Perth Toll. She is the founder of the Life and Liberty Indexes and the creator of the Freedom 100 EM Index, ETF symbol FRDM. She was named one of 10 to watch in 2020 by …

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Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode

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Tools

  • by Cato Institute

    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.

Products

  • 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.
  • by MSCI

    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.

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