The words “real estate” and “crisis” in combination often inspire panic amongst investors. After all, it hasn’t been long since banks’ exposure to the collapse of the US real estate market triggered the 2008 Financial Crisis. Following the crisis, the S&P 500 lost approximately 50% of its value. Understandably, new declarations of an ongoing commercial real estate (CRE) crisis have brought memories of the previous collapse to the forefront of investor concern. Recently, the valuations of commercial real estate assets such as retail properties and corporate offices have dropped precipitously. These plummeting valuations have undermined confidence in the greater banking system, which provides trillions of dollars in financing to CRE ventures through loans and mortgages.

AI is the broad term which describes machines attempting to mimic human intelligence. Alan
Turing is considered to be the grandfather of artificial intelligence writing a seminal paper in
1950 titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” where he introduced the concept of the
“Turing Test’’; a way of determining if a machine shows behaviour that is not distinguishable
from a human.

Historically, war has proved to be a blessing for the defence industry as a whole. This is largely due to the steep increases in defence spending directly translating into new contracts for ammunition, tanks and a myriad of other paraphernalia for the military industrial complex.

It is widely acknowledged that the European airline industry is recovering swiftly. But it remains to be seen whether the recovery will lead to sustainable improvement in the sector. Despite their return to profitability, airlines face a number of future concerns which should give one pause for thought – demand, capacity and operational problems to name a few. While many of the factors governing the near-term recovery look positive to industry analysts, the longer-term outlook cannot be taken for granted.

It is easy to forget just how ubiquitous semiconductors have become in our everyday lives. They are everywhere, found in virtually all electronic equipment, from the chips in our phones to those in our home appliances. For the last 60 years, silicon has been the only important semiconductor material, and silicon-based technology, largely computational in nature, has been continually enhanced and miniaturised over the decades. But this continual improvement has now hit a technical barrier: the laws of physics.

Since December 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement has been pushing us towards a cleaner and greener future. Countries are strengthening their response to the global threat of climate change. With the green economy on the horizon, one metal is going to be the center of attention.