While the world continues to grapple with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, philanthropic giving by the ultra-wealthy continues to expand for many nonprofit and education organizations’ fundraising departments. Indeed, global philanthropy and the major role played by the ultra-wealthy is manifest — as are society’s growing expectations of this group’s responsibilities, given rising inequality and surging UHNW wealth, even during the global pandemic.

The world is in the grip of an oil price shock. In just a few months, prices have risen from $65 a barrel to over $130, causing fuel costs to surge, inflationary pressure to rise and consumer tempers to flare. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prices were climbing rapidly because of roaring demand and limited supply growth.

In a few hundred years, humans have transformed the planet from an agricultural globe to an industrialized powerhouse. This transformation was, and is still, driven by electricity powered by cheap and easy-to-access fossil fuels. Currently, more than 80 percent of the world’s power is generated through oil, coal and natural gas.

The need for cybersecurity has exponentially increased over the years, with the pandemic-driven transition to a work-from-home environment accelerating the trend. With this increased focus on cybersecurity comes opportunity for investment in companies with solid fundamentals in this industry.

The Regional Transportation Council is still dead set on establishing an Interstate 30 corridor between Dallas and Fort Worth for high-speed transportation, but it has decided the futuristic hyperloop of Elon Musk’s dreams will not be the mode of transport. Rather, it will concentrate its efforts strictly on a high-speed rail system capable of operating at 250 miles per hour.

The family wealth community in North America has been on a roll for some time now. The client-centric model that took hold in the 1980s with the advent of fee-only financial planning has spread like wildfire to encompass the entire food chain, from single family offices advising billionaires, multifamily offices advising “mid-market” families of tens to hundreds of millions, and financial advisers advising millionaires. The ecosystem of family wealth includes tens of trillions of assets from more than 100,000 North American private households, yet it is served by only several thousand firms at most. It remains a highly fragmented and confusing landscape, with no one provider approaching a 10 percent market share.

Scientists at a nuclear fusion lab in the United Kingdom just broke the world record for the amount of energy produced in a single fusion reaction. Scientists first demonstrated the ability to fuse two atoms in lab experiments in the 1930s. Nuclear science has come a long way since then, but still has not managed to harness the energy produced by nuclear fusion to generate electricity.

An executive order signed by President Biden is directing his administration to review the government’s approach to cryptocurrencies, with the intent of ensuring the United States continues to play a leading role in the fast-growing $1.85 trillion business — while also protecting consumers from fraud and the overall U.S. financial system itself instability.

The goal is a notable one: cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 as part of its commitment to tackling climate change. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam might be lacking the critical minerals needed to achieve that goal.

The hybrid workplace is failing to live up to expectations in a number of ways, according to some observers. By one estimate, spending an average of three days each week in the office can limit encounters between any two workers by 64 percent compared with pre-pandemic norms. The gap widens to 84 percent in potential interactions for those in the office two days a week.

The cumulative capacity of American colleges grew by 26 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2019, according to federal data compiled for a report released this past year by EY-Parthenon, a consulting company, while enrollment increased by only 3 percent. Meanwhile, the annual cost to colleges of carrying the resulting 3 million to 5 million excess seats, and extra personnel, the report’s authors write, could be as high as $50 billion.

Mounting evidence suggests the western United States is now in its worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years. Groundwater supplies are being over-pumped in many places, and the dryness, wildfires and shrinking water supplies are making climate change personal for millions of people.

It’s hard to even trust what we think we know about our current economic climate. Inflation could be fleeting. The COVID-19 pandemic could spawn a new variant and scuttle the return to normalcy. But, given the present market dynamics, 2022 promises to be another strong year for real estate investors, according to Ramin Kamfar, founder and CEO of Bluerock.

This month’s question: At this stage in the so-called energy transition, what do you consider the optimal balance between fossil fuels and renewables in a portfolio’s energy sleeve?

New data from this year’s Wealth Report by Knight Frank shows that the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) grew 9.3 percent between 2020 and 2021. Nearly all regions saw an increase during the time period. UHNWIs are defined as having net assets of $30 million or more, including their primary residence.

Michael Chobanian, founder of Kuna, a popular Ukrainian crypto exchange: “We don’t trust the government. We don’t trust the banking system. We don’t trust the local currency. The majority of people have nothing else to choose apart from crypto.”