News and insights

As the new year begins, some reflect on the past and others proffer predictions for the future. We prefer to look at long-term themes but if we were to make a prediction we foresee a Latino president in the Oval Office in the near future.

What price will Bitcoin be by the time you read this? $50,000? $5? Its value today is around $17,000, an increase of 1,600% since 1 January 2017 and around 5,666,666% since 1 January 2011. The total market cap of all Bitcoins is close to $280 billion.

It is hard to ignore Saudi Arabia; headlines painting an ever-bleaker picture for a country already associated with conflict and extremism. When looking at this oil giant with an investment lens, it is very easy to get distracted by the noise of politics.

It’s almost 2019. Flying police cars have not happened; the acid rain debate shelved; and Shimago-Domínguez' globalisation has been and gone. Ridley Scott’s future hit the screens 35 years ago, but some of this cult film noir’s themes are very prescient.

If the Colorado River is recognised as a person, it could become part of a solution to a global risk: freshwater scarcity. More than 70% of the world is covered in water (oceans make up 96.5% of the total) but not very much is useable freshwater.

The battle for semiconductor supremacy reads like a script for a duel between DC Comics’ Man of Steel and Marvel’s Iron Man. Is the digital age’s superhero silicon about to come face to face with its nemesis: carbon?