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Gillian Tett

Yesterday

Not only have American stock markets hit record highs but other risk assets have also surged, with bitcoin jumping to its own record high of $US90,000.

How to invest in the Trump era

From bitcoin to navigating the new president’s Tudor court, investors should bear the following in mind.

September

A flare burns as oil pump jacks operate in the Permian Basin, Texas. The American Sustainable Business Council is suing the Texas government for forcing it to invest in fossil fuels.

The stakeholder doctrine is flourishing despite attacks on ESG

Under pressure from both the ESG and anti-ESG lobbies, corporate leaders realise they still can’t ignore the social and political context in which they operate

August

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Market gyrations reflect fears about the unwinding of QE

Bountiful free money is not a “normal” state of affairs, and the sooner investors realise this the better. And that includes central bankers.

March

New York City skyline. Manulife’s move shows that some players are finally getting more honest about America’s commercial real estate pain.

It’s time to be honest about America’s commercial real estate hangover

Commercial real estate has tumbled into a debilitating pattern of “extend and pretend”: lenders have essentially rolled over troubled loans, hoping for a miraculous future Fed rescue.

September 2023

An advanced modular reactor, only 16m tall and taking up little more space than a tennis court.

Why the tech bros are turning to nuclear

The enormous energy demands of AI are one reason why rich technology entrepreneurs are drawn to factory-built modular nukes.

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July 2023

People who worked with Donald Trump in the White House say he will struggle to get establishment figures to work with him again.

Is the US sleepwalking into a new Trump nightmare?

One dinner party guest predicted Trump would be ‘hell-bent’ on taking revenge on anyone who had challenged him.

real estate

Why halting an office real estate crash needs creative ideas

New York’s stranded legacy office space could be converted into accommodation if harsh zoning rules can be waived.

March 2023

The real issue is about something more fundamental than legal niceties: trust in capitalist logic.

Investors in limbo as trust in market values wavers

Investors are unsure if market laws still apply after Swiss authorities allowed the Credit Suisse takeover to wipeout the ailing bank’s bonds.

January 2023

Are we leaving the age of bulls and markets for one of bears and the state.

The world is in a new age – but what do we call it?

We are exiting the Age of Markets. It is not clear what the new destination is, only that states will be back in charge.

The c-suite is contending with a baffling world that most are ill-equipped to analyse.

Executives ill-equipped to deal with 2023’s big risks

Business leaders are contending with a baffling world that most do not have the experience to analyse.

November 2022

A demonstrator at this month’s COP27 Climate Summit in Egypt. Many green activists hate the whole concept of blockchain technologies, since early iterations of this guzzled energy.

Blockchain may have a green future regardless of crypto

Scandals like FTX should not detract from the experiments going on with the technology elsewhere.

July 2022

Andrey Liscovich at a pro-Ukraine rally in San Francisco. He is now back in Ukraine using the tech skills he developed at Uber to support military logistics.

How a former Uber exec is helping Ukraine push back against Russia

At the start of the war, the world waited for Russia to shut down Ukraine’s internet. But Silicon Valley-trained engineers and global digital networks are giving the smaller country an edge.

Workers who started their careers at the end of the 20th century assumed “going to work” meant “going to the office”.

Why CEOs are so WTF about WFH

One hot topic is guaranteed to press the buttons of US bosses: working from home.

January 2022

Get ready for a new jolt: liquidity holes

The Fed’s pledge to shrink its balance sheet as well as raising rates means something rare might be about to happen in markets: a shortage of buyers for some assets relative to supply.

Cryptocurrency mining.

You’ve invested in crypto. How dirty is your money?

A tricky question for mainstream investors in 2022: can you dabble in digital gold without getting your hands grubby?

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November 2021

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met several times when they were both vice-presidents; Now leaders of their countries, they held their first virtual, bilateral talks earlier this month.

The US and China are already at war. But which kind?

The fact that war can be fought in so many ways in the 21st century might reduce the need for actual military conflict.

The Federal Reserve cannot keep acting as a trillion-dollar-a-day market maker of last resort.

The US Treasuries market is a dangerous place to dream

When markets awake and reprice Treasuries, there is every chance we will see another nasty jolt.

October 2021

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Nuclear power can help fill the gaps in a tricky energy transition

An attempt to make nuclear reactors part of an ESG pitch is a striking sign of the climate times – and one that should be welcomed.

September 2021

Look to Japan for lessons on Evergrande

The Evergrande crisis is less ‘Lehman moment’ and more domestic property and bank asset bubble, like the one which dogged the Japanese economy for decades.

  • Updated

August 2021

A television broadcasts Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

How the Fed’s digital currency could displace crypto

The Boston Fed and MIT are building a central bank digital currency that aims to usurp existing tokens.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/gillian-tett-p4yvli