What’s the deal with Barron’s? The December 17^th, 2007 edition ran a surprising spotlight on one mutual fund that’s delivered disappointing results. The Putnam Global Equity Fund (Ticker: PEQUX) was the focus.

According to the article, PEQUX has underperformed its corresponding benchmark (MSCI World Index) over the past 1, 3, and 5 years. Shouldn’t that have prevented Barron’s editors from wasting good paper and ink on this verifiable dog. In the crowded world of global equity mutual funds, was PEQUX the best that Barron’s could find? Maybe it was the best performing Putnam fund they could find.

As if these subpar results weren’t bad enough, PEQUX also comes equipped with a 5.25 percent sales charge and an annual expense ratio of 1.23 percent. It’s one thing to underperform, but getting soaked in the process with high fund costs is insult to injury.

For serious investors that want exposure to the global equity market – they should begin with index funds.

The SPDR MSCI ACWI ex-US ETF (Ticker: CWI) follows an index that contains more than 1,500 stocks and aims to measure equity market performance in all global developed and liquid emerging markets outside of the U.S. The fund’s annual expense ratio is 0.35 percent.

Another fund that offers a similar investment strategy is the Vanguard FTSE All World ex-US ETF (Ticker: VEU). Its underlying index includes approximately 2,200 stocks of companies in 47 countries from both developed and emerging markets around the world. Currently the index is heavily weighted to European countries and the fund charges an annual expense ratio of 0.25 percent.

Global equity funds typically include U.S. stocks and since the above ETFs eliminate exposure to U.S. stocks, owning a broad based domestic stock fund like Vanguard’s Total Stock Market ETF (Ticker: VTI) alongside these funds will give your portfolio the global feel you’re probably looking for.

Both CWI and VEU are more diversified compared to PEQUX, which is concentrated in roughly 75 stocks. Also, the annual expense ratios for both ETFs cost 75 percent less versus PEQUX. Translation: You get to keep more of your performance returns in your own pocket.

One newer ETF with a global slant worth watching is the Claymore/Robeco Developed World Equity ETF (Ticker: EEW). The fund’s index selects securities using quantitative strategies and then weights them by market capitalization. It was launched in March 2007 and charges an annual expense ratio of 0.65 percent.

In the meantime, let’s have a moment of silence for the poor tree that had to die for Barron’s December 17^th mutual fund column.