The land of the free: Investing in the world's largest economy

For children growing up in the 1980s, their earliest impressions of America are likely to have been forged by the hugely popular TV programmes and films of that era. There was the glitz of Dallas, the excitement of The A-Team and the glamour of Baywatch, while action heroes such as Arnold Schwarzenegger ruled Hollywood. The US was the land of opportunity, somewhere that dreams could come true as long as you were driven and worked hard - and its stock markets illustrated the point. Research by FTSE Russell branded the 80s a "time of dynamism" for US equity markets, with falling interest r...