Good stuff, Mr. Cao. Relevant and clear. And about the future!

Better than I have come to expect from my beloved professional association. Unfortunately.

The CE program is a joke -- as this old warrior noted in arguments long ago against making such nonsense mandatory. Fortunately the old warriors won on that one. Markets sort out who is competent and who isn't. That is what they are for -- not a job for bureaucrats. Maybe for doctor sorts, but not for those measured in their results every single day.

One learns every day or one perishes. I do. But it has nothing to do with what bureaucrats think, or say, is important. They haven't a clue about the future. Most of us don't. But it doesn't involve trying to drive solely with the rear-view mirror or spending much time with academics.

I still recall from the 1990s writing to the AIMR. The ASEA had just been formed. I thought the AIMR (terrible name back then) should at least just send a note of encouragement to them. While in Kenya and Ghana I had been approached by eager youngsters wanting to get a CFA designation. They spotted my lapel pin from across rooms. I sent many books.

The nitwit at the AIMR then asked me, "Please send me a memo about what that would do for the AIMR." I lost it. Today, of course, CFA Institute officials circle the globe encouraging such activities. Where is the foresight?

And that is my point about your addressing the future in your three articles and the CFA Institute not doing so in the not-so-distant past, nor in its CE at present.

Best wishes.

Lloyd L. Clucas, JD CFA [# 6690]