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There are many problematic countries on the world stage.

Not only are their political behaviors bad, but they're also unhealthy for your investment dollars.

Most emerging market indexes, however, invest broadly across all of these countries,

regardless of their political activity.

If only there was a way to avoid authoritarian regimes, dictators, and other bad actors that

destroy your investing capital.

As it turns out, there's a fund to do just that, investing in emerging markets without

steering money to the worst countries on the planet. I'm Barry Ritheltz,

and on today's edition of At the Money, we're going to discuss how to avoid those countries

that are dangerous to your wealth. To help us unpack all of this and what it means for your

portfolio, let's bring in Perth Toll. She is the founder of the Life and Liberty Indexes and the creator of the Freedom 100

EM Index, ETF symbol FRDM.

She was named one of 10 to Watch in 2020 by Wealth Management magazine and one of the

100 people transforming business by Business Insider in 2021.

Her Freedom 100 EM Index ETF now manages over $2 billion and has beaten the S&P 500 over 1, 2 and three years. In 2025, Freedom was up 67 percent versus the S&P 500

up almost 18 percent. So Perth, let's just start with the basic concept. Why screen emerging

market companies for a concept like freedom?

How does screening out dictators, authoritarians, and other bad actors impact market performance?

...