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Why the Fall of the Wall Meant So Much

  • November 11, 2009

Fall of the Wall 111109Twenty years ago this week, the Berlin Wall fell and in doing so, set off a string of momentous events that in short order saw the reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and freedoms and democracy spread across a long-oppressed part of the world.

Few events in modern history have had such a significant impact on the lives of so many people, but momentum for the wall’s fall began years earlier.

A member of our investment team who grew up in Poland points out the important role played by Polish leader Lech Walesa, the shipyard electrician who led the Solidarity labor movement that drew support from around the world.

Solidarity’s success in creating the first free trade union behind the Iron Curtain weakened the region’s Communist governments and won Walesa the Nobel Peace Prize. Walesa, later Poland’s first post-Communist president, was in Berlin this week to tip over the first in a series of artistic dominos representing pivotal events from that time.

A member of our team who grew up in Azerbaijan during the Soviet era describes the Berlin Wall as the line in the sand for the Soviets. Once it was gone, it was a natural next step for the former Soviet republics to pursue their own independence.

Prior to the wall’s fall, defiance of Moscow was rare in the Soviet republics, but that changed quickly. By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union was no more – an outcome that few would have believed possible just a couple of years earlier.

As global investors, we watch government policies for peace and prosperity as part of our investment process. The dramatic changes in the former Soviet bloc, for example, led us to create our Eastern European Fund (EUROX) in 1997 – this was one of the first funds focusing on this region. Having a diverse investment team is a tremendous asset in helping us to spot opportunities arising from important global events.

Please consider carefully a fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. For this and other important information, obtain a fund prospectus by visiting www.usfunds.com or by calling 1-800-US-FUNDS (1-800-873-8637). Read it carefully before investing. Distributed by U.S. Global Brokerage, Inc.

By investing in a specific geographic region, a regional fund’s returns and share price may be more volatile than those of a less concentrated portfolio. All opinions expressed and data provided are subject to change without notice. Some of these opinions may not be appropriate to every investor. Foreign and emerging market investing involves special risks such as currency fluctuation and less public disclosure, as well as economic and political risk. The Eastern European Fund invests more than 25% of its investments in companies principally engaged in the oil & gas or banking industries.  The risk of concentrating investments in this group of industries will make the fund more susceptible to risk in these industries than funds which do not concentrate their investments in an industry and may make the fund’s performance more volatile. #09-795

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