An unexpected change of heart happened in May that you might not have heard about. After years of resisting any path other than its rigorous course, Germany announced it is backing off from pure austerity and is now planning to spend billions of euros to stimulate the economies of Europe.

Germany, which had been the economic rock of Europe, was facing fissures in its economy as well as an upcoming election season.

With pressure building, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Chancellor Angela Merkel are now “willing to abandon ironclad tenets of their current bailout philosophy,” says Spiegel Online.

Berlin’s about-face seemed to be underreported, but the news is significant to global growth. Many countries around the world, especially emerging markets, have been trying to charge ahead, implementing stimulative easing and monetary policies to strengthen their economies, yet Europe was still a drag.

Just look at the unemployment rate in the Europe area, which recently rose to 12.2 percent, a new record, according to Business Insider.

Weeks ago, when a student discovered a mistake in the famous report of Harvard professors Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, I said that calling this data into question provides a platform for Germany and the European Union to lessen austerity measures and delay the inevitable. It appears that Schäuble and Merkel have taken their first step onto the stage of unprecedented monetary policies.

From March 2009 when the first round of quantitative easing began, central banks have cut interest rates a total of 515 times and injected $12 trillion into markets, says Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoA-ML). As a result, U.S. stock investors saw the market take off an astounding 166 percent since the first shot of liquidity.

However, contrary to what you may think, the U.S. is not the best performing market in the world. Take a look at the chart below, which ranks the top 10 equity markets’ total return over these past four years. Stocks in Indonesia grew 372 percent, Turkey rose 286 percent and Mexico has climbed 211 percent. Even Singapore, Korea and Australia climbed more than the U.S. stocks.

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In addition to all the global liquidity sloshing around, central banks have also “crushed bond yields to the point that almost 50 percent of all global government bond market cap currently trades below 1 percent,” according to BoA-ML.

In a great illustration of today’s low yield environment, the research firm compared the yields across debt markets from 2007 and 2008 to today. In June 2007, Treasuries were yielding more than 4.5 percent; today, they are sitting just above 0.5 percent. Even the riskier high-yield corporate bonds, which climbed to a high of 23 percent in December 2008, have fallen to about 5 percent.

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Even though market pundits talk about elevated rates on the horizon, we believe significantly higher rates that would move the needle for an income investor is a ways off. Low yields should be a significant factor for awhile.

That’s why it may be a good time to look at emerging markets dividend-paying stocks. Many emerging markets are growing faster than their developed counterparts. In addition, emerging markets are currently yielding more than U.S. stocks. While the S&P 500 Index pays a dividend yield of 2.05 percent, the stocks in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index are yielding 2.65 percent.

For those who can handle a little more risk, take a closer look at the Global Emerging Markets Fund (GEMFX), which seeks undervalued, smaller and dividend-paying companies located in developing markets around the world. On a year-to-date basis, the fund is outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by nearly 6 percent. See the fund’s latest holdings.

Expense ratios as stated in the most recent prospectus. Performance data quoted above is historical. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Results reflect the reinvestment of dividends and other earnings. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance data quoted. The principal value and investment return of an investment will fluctuate so that your shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Performance does not include the effect of any direct fees described in the fund’s prospectus (e.g., short-term trading fees of 0.05%) which, if applicable, would lower your total returns. Performance quoted for periods of one year or less is cumulative and not annualized. Obtain performance data current to the most recent month-end at www.usfunds.com or 1-800-US-FUNDS.

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.

Foreign and emerging market investing involves special risks such as currency fluctuation and less public disclosure, as well as economic and political risk. The S&P 500 Stock Index is a widely recognized capitalization-weighted index of 500 common stock prices in U.S. companies. The MSCI Emerging Markets Total Net Return Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in emerging market countries on a net return basis (i.e., reflects the minimum possible dividend reinvestment after deduction of the maximum rate withholding tax).

It’s been a few months since I was in Istanbul and wrote about Turkey’s exciting cultural and economic transformation, and the country is still making headlines. The Emerging Europe Fund’s (EUROX) portfolio manager, Tim Steinle, has been very bullish on Turkey for multiple reasons, including its young growing demographic, its fiscal and monetary policies geared toward growth, and its entrepreneurial mindset and pro-business policies, to name just a few.

Most recently, Moody’s Investors Service validates our opinion of Turkey as the rating agency upgraded the country’s credit rating from Baa3 to Ba1 with a stable outlook.

The move brings about the long-awaited second investment grade rating, following Fitch’s upgrade in November 2012. The agency highlighted the recent and expected improvements in finance metrics, as well as noticeable progress on structural and institutional reforms.

In addition, Turkey’s central bank cut rates by 50 basis points, exceeding analyst expectations as it seeks to contain currency appreciation. The lira has been strengthening as capital inflows seeking to benefit from the country’s promising economic growth remain strong.

Local stocks historically received a boost in the months following an upgrade. The table below shows HSBC Global Research’s chart of the performance of the Philippines’ equity market following its credit upgrades. One month after the rating upgrade, stocks rose an average of 2 percent. In the three months after its upgrade, stocks climbed 10.3 percent, on average.

  Philippines’ Equity Market Continues to Increase After Rating Upgrades

Agency	Date of the event	Rating	Previous Rating	-3 month	-1 month	+1 month	+3 month
S&P	May-2-13	BBB-	BB+	11.2%	4.1%	NA	NA
Fitch	Mar-27-13	BBB-	BB+	18.4%	2.8%	1.4%	NA
Moody’s	Oct-29-12	Ba1	Ba2	6.4%	2.2%	6.0%	16.8%
S&P	Jul-4-12	BB+	BB	7.5%	13.1%	-1.3%	3.8%
Average				10.9%	5.6%	2.0%	10.3%
Source: HSBC Global Research, Bloomberg, MSCI, Thomson Reuters Datastream

Turkey stands among the strongest countries to benefit from current global easing. Internally, inflation is well under control, and domestic consumption is unabated. Furthermore, the country’s stock market continues to trade on a cheaper price to earnings valuation when compared to countries like Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand, says HSBC. Hence, there is ample reason to believe the Turkish equity market should continue to outperform.

We’ve discussed Turkey’s ongoing financial and economic strength over the past few years. Click below to read more:

Samuel Pelaez, analyst at U.S. Global Investors, contributed to this commentary.

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.

Foreign and emerging market investing involves special risks such as currency fluctuation and less public disclosure, as well as economic and political risk. 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.

The Emerging Europe Fund invests more than 25 percent 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.

A few months ago, I talked about how a financial transactions tax can have significant unintended consequences. Using Hungary as an example, I said that when the government implemented a levy of 0.5 percent on banks’ assets, bank credit growth rates plummeted. As a result, Hungary’s household and corporate sector credit growth rates became anemic compared to other Eastern European countries.

Now it appears that Italy is going “Hungary” by introducing a financial transaction tax that became effective in March. For shares of Italian companies, investors are taxed an additional 0.12 percent of the value of the shares purchased in a regulated market or trading platform. For over-the-counter transactions, the tax is even more costly, at 0.22 percent, according to Reuters.

Since going into effect on March 1, trading in Italian stocks through desks of major banks has plummeted. According to the Financial Times, average daily trading volumes in March have dropped about 40 percent compared to the previous month. “This is the biggest fall in volumes on any major European exchange so far this year,” says the FT.

I believe this is a great example of how government policies are precursors to change. With a reduction in trading volumes, fewer buyers and sellers participate in the bid-and-ask process, and less competition can cause prices to languish.

With fewer buyers owning shares of public companies, investors’ portfolios are likely going to be deficient in growth assets. Take a look at Investment Company Institute data showing a decline in the percentage of households in the U.S. holding individual stocks in 2012 compared to 2002. In addition, Americans are less likely to own shares of their companies’ stock today compared to 10 years ago.

With less stock ownership, many of these U.S. investors likely missed out on the market’s tremendous rise over the last few years.

In March 2013, ICI issued a response to the financial transaction tax that’s been introduced in the U.S., saying, “A financial transaction tax is bad policy that substantially reduces the investment returns of fund investors and retirement savers. Whether introduced in the United States, Europe, or elsewhere, financial transaction taxes slow economic growth, drive away financial activity, and make markets less efficient.”

I believe leaders in Washington D.C. and around the world should be focused on policies that encourage individuals to invest rather than making it more onerous. I hope those considering similar financial transactions are taking note.