Where in the world to put your money

Morgan Stanley Capital International's index of 21 non-U.S. markets is down 49% through Dec. 1, 2008, compared with a 43% slide in the S&P 500. But the real devastation has occurred in once-hot emerging markets. China's CSI index of 300 publicly traded stocks has fallen 63% for the year. The MICEX index of 30 of Russia's most liquid stocks is down a staggering 73%.  A year ago many economists and analysts earnestly posited that the global economy had "decoupled": Fast-growing European and so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - could thrive regardless of what was taking place in U.S. and Western European markets.

 

For investors who believe that Brazil, China, India and other developing economies will bounce back, the safest bet is to buy an emerging-market exchange-traded fund. Lazard's Emerging Markets Equity (LZOEX) fund is open to new investors for a minimum $5,000 commitment.  Like all such funds, it's gotten crushed this year, down 61%. But its top ten holdings are mostly big, liquid companies (Korea's Samsung (SSNGY) and Russia's Lukoil among others) that should remain upright even in the midst of a global slump.

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