CHAPTER 1: THE INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT PROBLEM SETS 1. While it is ultimately true that real assets determine the material well-being of an economy, financial innovation in the form of bundling and unbundling securities creates opportunities for investors to form more efficient portfolios. Both institutional and individual investors can benefit when financial engineering creates new products that allow them to manage their portfolios of financial assets more efficiently. Bundling and unbundling create financial products with new properties and sensitivities to various sources of risk that allows investors to reduce (or increase, depending on the strategy) volatility by hedging sources of risk more efficiently. Estimated Time: 1–5 min 2. Securitization requires access to many potential investors. To attract these investors, the capital market needs: 1. a safe system of business laws and low probability of confiscatory taxation/regulation; 2. a well-developed investment banking industry; 3. a well-developed system of brokerage and financial transactions; and 4. well-developed media, particularly financial reporting. These characteristics are found in (and make for) a well-developed capital market. Estimated Time: 1–5 min 3. Securitization leads to disintermediation; that is, securitization provides a means for market participants to bypass intermediaries. For example, mortgage-backed securities channel funds to the housing market without requiring that banks or thrift institutions make loans from their own portfolios. Securitization works well and can benefit many, but only if the market for these securities is highly liquid. As securitization progresses, financial intermediaries lose opportunities; they must increase other revenue-generating activities such as