At this time last year, we were debating whether the inflation spike was just a short-term response to the rapid recovery of the economy, or were we entering a concerning period of systemic inflation after decades of low interest rates and stable prices?

Saudi Arabia, reaping the benefits of persistently high energy prices throughout 2022, is utilizing revenues from the oil trade to expand other sectors of its economy as part of the Vision 2030 project — a major investment initiative meant to attract new business to the country; diversify away from oil; ease social restrictions; and establish a legacy of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and prime minister.

Manufactured housing is not a new, new thing. Not even close. I remember talking about it with a group of multifamily developers years ago during my days at CBRE Global Investors (now CBRE Global Investment Management). So, why are we talking about it now? Technology. That’s right — the niche sector of manufactured housing is due for an overhaul, with technological advances in additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing, at the center.

In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, vast sums of money can be made or lost in the blink of an eye. In early November 2022, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, was valued at more than $30 billion. By Nov. 14, FTX was in bankruptcy proceedings along with more than 100 companies connected to it. D. Brian Blank and Brandy Hadley are professors who study finance, investing and fintech. They explain how and why this incredible collapse happened, what effect it might have on the traditional financial sector and whether you need to care if you don’t own any cryptocurrency.

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” Mark Mobius might have imagined himself intoning many years ago while pursuing an education in acting and stage direction at U.S. universities. Alas, it wasn’t Shakespeare who turned the world into Mobius’ stage, but Sir John Templeton (of Franklin Templeton fame) when he recognized the man’s aptitude for picking stocks. It was 1987 when he asked Mobius to run the newly formed emerging markets division at Templeton, Galbraith & Hansberger.

As I see it, decentralized assets have never looked more attractive than they do now. That includes gold, silver and bitcoin, and you could also make the case for collectibles such as art. By “decentralized,” I mean that these assets are not issued by a central authority. They are no one’s liability. No central banker makes the decision to mint more gold or silver. No finance minister decrees that bitcoin production be slowed or accelerated.

Central banks globally have accumulated gold reserves this year at a pace never seen since 1967, when the U.S. dollar was still backed by the precious metal. In the quarter ending September, demand for gold was up 28 percent year-on-year, reaching 1,181 tons. (Quartz, World Gold Council) /// MasterCard will help financial institutions offer cryptocurrency trading by acting as a “bridge” between Paxos, a crypto trading platform already used by PayPal, to offer a similar service. (CNBC) /// Amazon is getting ready to launch two ...

Where do we go? That’s the question paramount on many investors’ minds these days. Oil and related energy costs may have peaked, signaling a potential end to the latest inflation cycle. The economy has been slowing but still appears to remain relatively strong and sustainable. But the massive U.S. federal debt that has been run up and is now being added to via the funding of recently enacted federal programs remains a concern.

Julie Castro Abrams is founder and CEO of How Women Lead, a network of more than 14,000 executive women. The organization recently conducted a study that assessed how women invest in startups. The result was not pretty. Women face obstacles that result in far less venture capital investing than men, and women-owned startups receive a paucity of the dollars raised by VC funds.

Institutions that once focused solely on multifamily assets are increasing allocations across a broader spectrum of rental housing strategies. Supply/demand fundamentals paint a fairly compelling picture for market-rate and affordable residential investments.

The Roth IRA can be an attractive retirement account for investors. One reason is that Roth IRAs can help you save money on taxes, especially if you anticipate being in a higher tax bracket in the future. A strategy called a Roth conversion ladder can help with more tax savings on money you may have stashed away in other retirement accounts. What is a Roth conversion ladder?

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, commenting on high gas prices: “We’re definitely concerned. We want the cost to our drivers to be as low as possible, and the good news is used car prices are coming down, new car prices are coming down, gas prices in the U.S. are elevated but generally moving in the right direction, and we’re seeing more and more drivers flip over to electric vehicles.”

With capital shifting from the more challenged office and retail sectors toward residential, investors are increasingly broadening their scope to include different forms of for-rent housing. Yet some wonder whether these new schemes are simply a repackaging of a familiar product, and whether doubling down in this segment creates unwelcome correlations in a downturn.

What do you expect will be the most disruptive technology during the next 10 years? Brian Jones, executive vice president, Envision Financial Systems: Hands down, blockchain technology will revolutionize financial services in many impactful ways. Imagine our industry absent the many costly intermediaries charging fees while increasing the time it takes to transact. An immutable global ledger will change everything. Forget a goal of ...

On Oct. 22, the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives (IPA) provided comments to NASAA’s Corporation Finance Section in response to its request for comments on revisions to the Form U-1 with concerns about the proxy voting process and NASAA’s statements of policy (the “proposal”). 

With many Americans delaying homeownership — given low supply, high pricing and rising interest rates — that has in turn created a growing demand for rental housing. This is contributing to rising rents and presenting opportunity for investors to capitalize on the abundance of new renters, increased competition and demand that is outpacing supply, says Larry Jacobson, president and CEO of The Jacobson Co.