The Vanguard International Growth Fund is subadvised by Baillie Gifford and Schroders.
James Anderson leads Baillie Gifford's efforts on the fund alongside Tom Coutts and Lawrence Burns.
Mr. Burns is slated to succeed Mr. Anderson.
These three gentlemen head up the portfolio construction group whose seven members average more than 19 years with Baillie Gifford.

I should have placed the below links in order of dates, but anyway..... there are some portions within the links below to YouTube videos, aside from the actual full length movie or documentary (PBS). The links are broad based so that you may look at whatever related; and present a view of union/company power struggles.
Companies and unions, the battle between the two; and IMHO is simply based with a system of honor between management/the company and the workers. A form of equality or fairness between making a reasonable profit for a company and a reasonable wage to an employee for their effort in helping making the profit. Sadly, honor is a most difficult condition for a human(s) to maintain.
Over many years power and corruption have afflicted both groups.
The modern era example links below, have long and deep roots from time periods long ago. Also, that the time frames below only reflect some of the larger events; while many such events were taking place in many smaller actions all across the U.S. wherever one found an industrial era operation.
As an 18 y.o. I worked for GM for 16 months, and was a UAW member by default. Not a large learning experience for me at the time, as my brain cells were not fully developed , regarding a union. My largest first time observation of the factory world was the changing of the flavors in the soda/pop vending machines placed through out the enormous facility. The week before major holidays found that any beverage flavor that did not mix well with vodka or a whisky were removed and replaced with a highly favored mixer. Yes, management was fully aware of a high percentage of the work force who were using alcohol during work hours. I knew two shift foreman (management) who had a good buzz in place, periodically; during their 12 hour shift. An old joke was, "Don't buy a new car/truck built during the holidays"........quality control ??? From the alcohol of the 50's through 70's, came weed, coke and other used by employees. Sadly, the protection of union members, by the unions, traveled too far beyond the norm; attempting to protect against anything that was not an actual murder on company property. So much for what should have remained anything to do with being honorable. EX: Assembly line workers taking turns "clocking out, old mechanical time clocks" one another out at the end of a shift, when they had already left the building after 1 hour of work. Problem: True story. Fella left work early, crossed through a nearby rail yard, caught shoe/foot in track/switch unit, needed recuse unit to free foot and had to be taken to hospital emergency from the injury. Appealed that he had a family emergency and had to leave work early; and no other actions were taken against him.
The Flint, Michigan sit-down strike had a significant impact to the work landscape for many years. The benefits of this action flowed into the non-union wages and benefits, too; at least in Michigan.
Too many other stories about the companies and the unions; the power and the corruption that plague both of them to this day. But, I'm done; and hope the write flow is not too disruptive.
Matewan coal mining strike, 1920's, fact based
Homestead Carnegie steel strike, 1892, fact based
The Molly Maguires 1970 movie circa 1870's, book/movie inspired by true events.
Copper Country strike, 1913, fact based
The game changer, Flint Michigan, sit-down strike, 1936-1937
Michigan, right to work law , an at will employee
A further restriction/addition to this law was signed by the governor in 2013; regarding union membership. Prior employee (non-union) rights already had many restrictions to rights of employment in Michigan. A real world example took place in 2003, of which; I was witness. A company was re-shaping their employee base and terminated 4 people who were in their late 50's-early 60's and not yet at a full retirement age. A "no charge" meeting was held with a pro-labor attorney, regarding that this action appeared to be a "age related discrimination" related termination(s). He offered his experience with such actions and stated that this was a no win case; as if one did not have a series of annual reviews over the years that were graded an "excellent", no basis could be brought forth. So, when one is graded via an annual work review, and there are 10 areas of grading, each area must be the equivalent of "excellent", the highest possible rating. This indeed, would be a rare event in any employee's career. The terminations remained in place. My personal note, is that these 4 where honorable and ethical persons who gave a good days work to the company.

Not a boo boo, just a fund that most people wouldn't be looking at. The fund is also a good answer to the question: who would buy a bond (or bond fund) with a negative yield?
T. Rowe Price used to offer a variable annuity. While it hasn't been available for new investors in years, it is still around. The only cash alternative in that VA is (soon to be "was") the Government Money Portfolio.
If investors wanted to flee to safety, this was their only option within the annuity. Even though YTD (through Feb 28) it had lost 0.07% (including VA fees), and over the past year it lost 0.43%.
https://fsbl.com/annuities/t-rowe-price-performance/
I'm not picking on TRP here. No matter how low VA fees are, when MMFs yield 0.01% (including subsidies), investors will lose money with them. Here's the only MMF offered in Fidelity's Personal Retirement Annuity. Its negative returns (-0.05% YTD as of March 17, and -0.16% over the year ending Feb 28) incorporate the VA fees.
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/annuities/summary/FTNJC

Political Pressure on CEO Pay and Taxation:

Sanders invited Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify at the Budget Committee hearing, but he declined to appear. Bezos’s salary was $81,840 in 2019, as it has been for many years. But the company calculates his total compensation as nearly $1.7 million. Bezos, who also own The Washington Post, is currently the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $182 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Jennifer Bates, an Amazon worker at the company’s warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., testified about the unionization efforts there, saying that the company had been trying aggressively to get workers to back down.
Bates said the company had been holding meetings to discourage workers from joining the union, sometimes multiple times a week. Amazon has also been texting workers and posting fliers in bathroom stalls urging workers to vote no on the effort.

Article from his Newspaper (Washington Post):
amazon-union-sanders-hearing

Anyone know what is driving the recent performance of WWNPX? It's up almost 6% today, and 63.56% YTD.
I know they had some bitcoin, and maybe some TSLA at one point, but the published holdings cannot account for a 6% gain today. I'm actually embarrassed to admit that I still own it, because with a management fee of over 1.6%, it really can't be called a good choice. I bought it years and years ago before I knew anything about picking mutual funds. For now I guess I'll be embarrassed "all the way to the bank".

Start 5 years prior to retirement...
Link to Presentation (Audio / Video):
webinar-replay/the-ultimate-pre-retirement-checklist
Presentation PDF:
The Checklist

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/t-rowe-price-launches-first-impact-fund-301249406.html
T. Rowe Price Global impact Equity Fund
The fund will be aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), a globally recognized framework designed to end poverty, ensure prosperity, and protect the planet.
The fund will be managed by Hari Balkrishna. Mr. Balkrishna has 15 years of investment industry experience, including the last decade at T. Rowe Price. From 2015 until the end of last year, he was Associate Portfolio Manager of the firm's Global Growth Equity Strategy. Having lived and worked on five continents, Mr. Balkrishna has a keen understanding of the many different social systems around the world and he is personally passionate about addressing climate change.
The fund will employ an all-capitalization, high-conviction approach, typically owning between 55 and 85 securities, focused on those that Mr. Balkrishna believes will create positive environmental and social impact, along with attractive returns, over a long-term time horizon.
As with other T. Rowe Price strategies, the fund will draw upon the firm's global equity research platform, comprising 203 equity research analysts, 10 sector portfolio managers, and 73 regional and diversified portfolio managers. In addition, the fund will tap the deep expertise of the firm's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) experts and responsible investing research analysts as well as its proprietary Responsible Investing Indicator Model (RIIM), a database detailing how more than 15,000 securities measure up against established environmental and social parameters.
The net expense ratio for the Investor Class shares (Ticker: TGPEX) is 0.94% and the minimum initial investment is $2,500.
The net expense ratio for the I Class shares (Ticker: TGBLX) is 0.79% and the minimum initial investment is $1 million.
FUND DETAILS
The fund will be aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), a globally recognized framework designed to end poverty, ensure prosperity, and protect the planet.
The fund will be managed by Hari Balkrishna. Mr. Balkrishna has 15 years of investment industry experience, including the last decade at T. Rowe Price. From 2015 until the end of last year, he was Associate Portfolio Manager of the firm's Global Growth Equity Strategy. Having lived and worked on five continents, Mr. Balkrishna has a keen understanding of the many different social systems around the world and he is personally passionate about addressing climate change.
The fund will employ an all-capitalization, high-conviction approach, typically owning between 55 and 85 securities, focused on those that Mr. Balkrishna believes will create positive environmental and social impact, along with attractive returns, over a long-term time horizon.
As with other T. Rowe Price strategies, the fund will draw upon the firm's global equity research platform, comprising 203 equity research analysts, 10 sector portfolio managers, and 73 regional and diversified portfolio managers. In addition, the fund will tap the deep expertise of the firm's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) experts and responsible investing research analysts as well as its proprietary Responsible Investing Indicator Model (RIIM), a database detailing how more than 15,000 securities measure up against established environmental and social parameters.
The net expense ratio for the Investor Class shares (Ticker: TGPEX) is 0.94% and the minimum initial investment is $2,500.
The net expense ratio for the I Class shares (Ticker: TGBLX) is 0.79% and the minimum initial investment is $1 million.

This link is directed to ARKG, the bio-med, genomic related etf. The short write contains a podcast. While some may consider this is an info-mercial for ARK; education is within the discussion.
We've had interest, in particular related to CRISPR; for several years. Anyway, if you're interested; have a listen as your time allows.
Another area we've been following is Nanobot technology, and in particular the use of these within the body. There are numerous video presentations to be found for a better understanding. Nanotech, broad search link. At this link you may select the "videos" tab, too.

@davidmoran @Baseball_Fan
I try to remind myself skilled fund managers help manage upside/downside potential. A fund like COTZX attempts to gauge these two dynamics and adjusts its holdings according to maximizing the up and minimizing the down. VWINX, PRWCX do the same and continue to be long term buy and holds for me. I feel sectors like healthcare (VHT) and consumer staples (FSRPX) will rise more than fall. I judge these fund's performance over years, not days.
A bad year in the bond market is often a bad day in the equity market.
-treasuries are still a flight to safety.
-I believe highly skilled bond fund mangers can add both alpha and beta strategies and disciplines that I am not capable of.
If you have won the game...stop playing (sort of)
-As much as possible diversify your portfolio away from over valued assets. I sold Real Estate (the house I raise my kids in) this year. I downsized my footprint & my tax burden (both property and income tax). By lowering my "living expenses" without sacrificing my "quality of living" I can take less risk in my portfolio.

David you are being prudent and you've been to this rodeo before. Live in the present hindsight is 20-20. With all respect to you and your wife what would the conversation been like if you lost half your net worth?
I think we all kind of know hussman is prolly right and these stonk markets are way overvalued and could easily come down by over half if not for the fed. We're just greedy and don't want to admit it to ourselves
We've seen these disruptive, innovation type of fund managers get their lessons during turn of century. I would argue this time is even loonier and way more risky
I spent a lot of time in the 90s in silicon valley. Real jobs, real men running real companies, not these poofs running bullspit companies that have way fewer employees and burn thru fairy tale cash
Nothing wrong with sitting on heavy tbills and cash. Waiting like a tiger ready to pounce I'd rather get dinged by inflation than get drawn down by over 80%, like Nasdaq twenty years ago
I still remember my friends faces a year ago when their portfolios got mowed down. Deer in headlights. Looked despondent. Remember CNBC and all the special report shows with the startling music, keep running the one shot with the empty store shelves, scaring the shett out of everyone
Good luck to you and all,
Baseball Fan

@davidmoran in this economy... with the wealth of investment choices... Why.... “have a lot of money earning zero too”?
That’s not criticism ... I’m trying to learn what I don’t know. I’m looking out for a family member and asking the same questions... re investments and this market and conditions we are in.
YTD S&P 500 is up 5.50%

Tell me about it. Don't I know it. I will be interested in your own responses to your own questions.
Where if anywhere will you put spare moneys? Where should I put moneys now which I will not need for a few years (not a decade, but not 3-4y either)?
50-50 VTIP (GTO, MINT) and VONV (VONE, CAPE)? BND and BIV are down. Something additional into ARK and QQQ? Maybe.
Shiller p/e is close to 36, higher than it has ever been since the Y2k peak-plunge. Each week it goes higher. I coulda written this post, and believe I did, any month of the last 8 or so. We are 2/3 out of market for the last 10mos. In some sense we have enough and are being prudent in retirement. Otoh my wife, not just me, would like to have, or have had, the several hundred thou we 'missed', if I had stayed the course and done nothing.

Hi @BenWP and @JonGaltIII et al
As with most items deemed collectible; one finds scarcity, condition and a willing collector base, as critical measures, to achieve and maintain a forward motion in pricing (inflation offset). Auto auctions provide a view into a narrow area of collectibles.
I have watched most of the Mecum Auctions on tv over the years and find that many of the cars that have been loved and properly maintained over many years by the "boomers" are finding their way to the market place. This is not an unexpected event. You (Ben) are likely well aware of the numerous collectible cars that are parked away in garages, in Michigan, over winter months and find their way to the roads come springtime. However, the boomers are, well; fading away. Generally, the family prefers the money of a sale and not the car.
Several Mecum auctions in 2019 and more so, in 2020 found very large single collections being sold....i.e., 200 cars of every type. Realized prices for Mecum auctions may be found at their web site. One has to create an account and login. I don't know how much information they need for an account formation.
What I see is a few cars do and have maintained pricing power for the few wealthy collectors still in place; but a large base of desirable cars are no longer finding the pricing the sellers were expecting.
A humble observation from someone would has a decent knowledge of the 1962-1970 cluster of "muscle cars". I had a young man's fancy and pleasure of cruising Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mi, in the way back days, on a warm Saturday night. Kinda a silly thing to many, but I met many interesting folks along the way; as with engineers from the big 3 auto who had designed and built only 2 performance transmissions (Chrysler) that needed to be tested in the real world, or from GM engineers who designed and aluminum cast high performance intake manifolds.....oh, yes; that is correct, these are the only two at this time. Numerous summer, night time real world testing took place on the good and straight back roads between Detroit and Flint, Michigan. AKA, illegal drag racing.
Thanks for letting me ramble a short story about some auto history.
Take care,
Catch

Why in the World Would You Own Bond Funds?

I'm a few years away from retirement and am not comfortable with a 100% equity allocation.
Higher quality bond funds have low correlations to equities and add ballast to one's portfolio.
My bond allocation is lower than average (based on age) since current bond yields are depressed.

FWIIW, @bee, auction results on the collectible/exotic car auction site, Bring a Trailer, are giving off a strong whiff of inflation. I’m not in the market, but my sense after lurking there for a few years is that car nuts are throwing a lot of cash around. For mundane examples of price rises, organic coffee at Aldi just went up 10% and beer went from $5.99 to $6.99, while molasses at Kroger just got jacked up 50 cents.

@Crash, I think it's just more credit exposure, but of roughly the same sorts of credit as PTIAX. Even in PTIAX, they've broken out into a more multisector strategy than their old simple barbell of munis and non-agency mortgages.
I've held PTIAX for years now. I think their strategy is a winner long term.

A worry for retirees: Inflation forecasts hit 8-year high
MarketWatch
*The investment returns from their bonds and cash fell way behind.
Https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-worry-for-retirees-inflation-forecasts-hit-8-year-high-11615768498
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/the-threat-retirees-face-from-higher-inflation-2021-03-12
Inflation expectations have risen over the last couple of months
Inflation is heating up, and retirees are worried.
That’s because they are heavily invested in bonds, which suffer when inflation causes interest rates to rise. Just since the beginning of the year, for example, the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury Index Fund has lost 2.2% and the Vanguard Long-Term Treasury Index Fund has lost 10.8%. Those losses exceed the full-year gains those funds have produced in some recent years.*
Think many retired folks may have adjust portfolio to get higher risks/achieve the returns they desired like others mentioned. Some say may need to worry, others say everything may balance out
energy, agriculture, lower rated bonds/HY, stocks / energy maybe in big plays

Rudolph-Riad Younes and Richard Pell cost me a few dollars.

I was an investor in Julius Baer Intl Equity (later Artio Intl Equity) from 2003 - 2011.
BJBIX outperformed its Foreign Large Blend peers for many years under the tenure of Messrs. Pell and Younes. Morningstar wrote the following about managers Richard Pell and Rudolph-Riad Younes in April 2008.
"They have outperformed the foreign large-blend peer group in every single calendar year since they took over in 1995, and they've beaten the MSCI EAFE in all but one year."
Yahoo Finance indicates that the fund susbsequently lagged its Foreign Large Blend peers from 2009 - 2012.
Messrs. Pell and Younes managed the fund until May 2013.

Here's additional current information from NPR on the likely COVID source:

A member of the World Health Organization investigative team says wildlife farms in southern China are the most likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic.
China shut down those wildlife farms in February 2020, says Peter Daszak, a disease ecologist with EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO delegation that traveled to China this year. During that trip, Daszak says, the WHO team found new evidence that these wildlife farms were supplying vendors at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan with animals.
Daszak told NPR that the government response was a strong signal that the Chinese government thought those farms were the most probable pathway for a coronavirus in bats in southern China to reach humans in Wuhan.
Those wildlife farms, including ones in the Yunnan region, are part of a unique project that the Chinese government has been promoting for 20 years now.
"They take exotic animals, like civets, porcupines, pangolins, raccoon dogs and bamboo rats, and they breed them in captivity," says Daszak.
The agency is expected to release the team's investigative findings in the next two weeks. In the meantime, Daszak gave NPR a highlight of what the team figured out.
"China promoted the farming of wildlife as a way to alleviate rural populations out of poverty," Daszak says. The farms helped the government meet ambitious goals of closing the rural-urban divide, as NPR reported last year.
"It was very successful," Daszak says. "In 2016, they had 14 million people employed in wildlife farms, and it was a $70 billion industry."
Then on Feb. 24, 2020, right when the outbreak in Wuhan was winding down, the Chinese government made a complete about-face about the farms.
"What China did then was very important," Daszak says. "They put out a declaration saying that they were going to stop the farming of wildlife for food."
The government shut down the farms. "They sent out instructions to the farmers about how to safely dispose of the animals — to bury, kill or burn them — in a way that didn't spread disease."
Why would the government do this? Because, Daszak thinks, these farms could be the spot of spillover, where the coronavirus jumped from a bat into another animal and then into people. "I do think that SARS-CoV-2 first got into people in South China. It's looking that way."
First off, many farms are located in or around a southern province, Yunnan, where virologists found a bat virus that's genetically 96% similar to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Second, the farms breed animals that are known to carry coronaviruses, such as civet cats and pangolins.
Finally, during the WHO's mission to China, Daszak said the team found new evidence that these farms were supplying vendors at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, where an early outbreak of COVID-19 occurred.
The market was shut down overnight on Dec. 31, 2019, after it was linked to cases of what was then described as a mysterious pneumonia-like illness.
"There was massive transmission going on at that market for sure," says Linfa Wang, a virologist who studies bat viruses at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. He's also part of the WHO investigative team. Wang says that after the outbreak at the Huanan market, Chinese scientists went there and looked for the virus.
"In the live animal section, they had many positive samples," Wang says. "They even have two samples from which they could isolate live virus."
And so Daszak and others on the WHO team believe that the wildlife farms provided a perfect conduit between a coronavirus-infected bat in Yunnan (or neighboring Myanmar) and a Wuhan animal market.
"China closes that pathway down for a reason," Daszak says. "The reason was, back in February 2020, they believed this was the most likely pathway [for the coronavirus to spread to Wuhan]. And when the WHO report comes out ... we believe it's the most likely pathway too."
The next step, says Daszak, is to figure out specifically which animal carried the virus and at which of the many wildlife farms.

I agree that 3 years performance is bit short in risking of not seeing the entire picture. The fund is set up as a defensive position.

My bitch Lewis is that even to this day, despite the clear wording of the Declaration, white males are considered and treated like they are more equal than all the others. That imbalance extends to housing, healthcare, employment, opportunity, wages for equal work, freedom, you name it. It's still an uphill battle after 240+ years.