Have you heard the news? We are in a clean energy revolution. And where I live in Berkeley, Calif., it seems like every day I see a new roof with new solar panels going up, and new electric cars in driveways. Germany sometimes gets half its power from solar, and India is now committed to building 10 times more solar than we have in California, by the year 2022.

The stricter regulatory environment imposed on commercial banks and CMBS lenders over the past year has led to a sharp rise in alternate sources of commercial mortgage capital, giving rise to the question: Is this a short-term trade or will the growth of this segment be more permanent?

While the overall asset management industry has been growing along with passive investing, the share of traditional active funds has been declining, especially those operating in the developed markets of large-cap equity and government bonds. The global AUM share of traditional active products has fallen sharply over the past decade, from 60 percent in 2003 to around 40 percent at the end of 2014. Accompanying this dramatic change in flows has been increased speculation on the future of active management and the dynamics of active and passive investing. 

Cuba is the last great frontier market for real estate investors. This Pennsylvania-size island of 11.2 million people, with 2,320 miles of coastline and more than 1,000 largely undeveloped beaches, offers unprecedented value-creation opportunities and returns on investment.

The rise in interest in autonomous vehicles is just one indication that the era of high numbers of personally owned vehicles in the United States is coming to an end. A report by the Rocky Mountain Institute explores the possibility that a new mobility system will emerge in the next few years that is superior to our existing system in almost every way.

Sept. 1 marked an important milestone for the real estate investment trust (REIT) industry. Effective that date, real estate became the 11th sector in the Global Industry Classification Standard — the first new sector since Standard & Poor’s and MSCI formulated GICS in 1999. Here’s how MSCI explains the GICS addition: “With the creation of the new Real Estate Sector, we acknowledge its growing importance in today’s global economy. This change will elevate its position from under the Financial Sector, recognizing Real Estate as a distinct asset class and a foundational building block of a modern portfolio.”

While China has been grabbing the attention of the Asia Pacific market, and Mexico and Peru have been making headlines in Latin America with record low auction prices, developers looking to further expand in those markets should look to two countries: India and Argentina.

Whether the goal is to achieve capital preservation or aggressively generate growth, a successful retirement savings plan requires establishing an appropriate asset allocation strategy. Putting all your retirement funds into a savings account can be safe, but in order to build meaningful wealth, investors need to find an account that can deliver a return above the current rate of inflation. On the other hand, investing in assets other than cash can be an effective way to outperform inflation and generate regular income. Alternative investments, one such asset category, have the potential to generate attractive returns with the added benefit of protecting a portfolio from market volatility.

As liquid alternative offerings continue to grow, investors are charged with the task of determining which funds are appropriate for inclusion in their portfolios. One of the primary areas of confusion surrounding liquid alternatives is exactly how many exist as true alternative offerings.

With all that is happening in the world — the U.S. election, the Brexit vote, various terrorist incidents, speculation about will she or won’t she raise rates at the Fed and other concerns — oil seems to have been pushed down the priority scale of market-influencing issues. The price of West Texas Intermediate has varied between the low and high $40s for months as investors have reacted to news about restrictive fracking legislation, Saudi Arabian production, demand in a slowing world economy and the liquidation of the huge crude inventory overhang.

Monsanto has made the first move toward building a centralized and open digital platform for farmers to access agronomic data and analysis from a range of providers through its subsidiary The Climate Corp.

Many years ago, I got in a tangle with a neighbor about the world’s state of affairs. I was living in Portland, Ore., at the time, and Linda and her husband lived across the street. Weekend mornings we would often have coffee together. I admired Linda for being an assiduous reader of the daily newspaper, which she read cover to cover each day and was always well informed about all that was going down in the United States and the world.