Joseph Stiglitz on Managing Money Amid Wild Fed Policy

I recently sat down with Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from Columbia University.

In this clip, Stiglitz talks about managing money -- a retirement portfolio, in particular -- amid the unprecedented monetary easing around the world. Have a look (transcript follows):

Stiglitz: A lot of people are worried about inflation. What happens when QE 2, 3 unwind? I'm a little bit less worried about inflation, but if I were worried about inflation, I would encourage people to buy government bonds, inflation index government bonds that will protect them against the vagaries of inflation. So if there's no inflation, they'll lose. But there is; they'll win.

So that's an example of trying to manage your portfolio. You'll probably not put everything into that, but inflation, in many people's minds, is a significant risk, and that's where I would put some money.

Those who are braver may want to think about, look at things from a global point of view. Many of the emerging markets yield higher returns. Many of the emerging markets, one can expect their change rate to appreciate relative to the dollar. And the combination of appreciation plus higher yields means in dollar terms, an even higher return. Not risk free, but I think that overall, the expectation on a diversified portfolio is probably higher.