People must have a place to live; consumers a place to shop; businesses a place to conduct commerce; manufacturers a place to make, store and distribute their wares. But when the economy goes bad, one of the first forms of commerce to suffer is travel — both for leisure and business — and that is a dagger for the hotel business.

Most investors figure there’s no way they can stake a claim in the rapidly escalating quantum computing gold rush. The companies involved in creating quantum computers and peripheral technologies are barely startups and can only be accessed by accredited investors, such as venture capitalists, angel investors and private equity companies.

Like so many executives in the private wealth business, David Frame, CEO of J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Private Bank, pursued a collegiate area of study that failed to indicate his professional destination. To wit: a bachelor’s degree in American civilization from Middlebury College, which involved an array of coursework encompassing history and American literature. Frame says his understanding of college at the time was a place to take classes in subjects that interested you.

File this report about the decline of the global oil business under LIBERAL, ANTI-AMERICAN PROPOGANDA. Wait … scratch that. Exxon has been kicked off the Dow Index of 30 companies (of which it has been a member since 1928) and replaced by Salesforce.

After peaking in late February, U.S. REITs entered a sharp downturn in the second quarter of 2020 as the full impact of the COVID-19 outbreak began to be felt across the economy. As measured by the FTSE NAREIT Equity REITs index, U.S. REITs fell more than 44 percent on a total return basis over the next month.

After setting up work-from-home policies when COVID-19 hit, many companies have been cautious about returning to the office as government mandates are lifted. Despite this hesitancy, the desire to go back to the workplace is strong. According to a recent Gensler study, 70 percent of full-time U.S. office workers prefer working in an office environment for the majority of their week, and only 12 percent want to work from home full time.

There has been a lot of discussion about the declining fortunes of American retailers. Much focus is on sales declines from internet competition. The question of how this impacts various shopping centers is complex. Some centers or “types” of centers have store mixes that make them more or less vulnerable to ecommerce. Within the mall category, some centers were built at great locations originally, while others were squeezed into more marginal sites. Some have had capital infusions and renovations. So are there patterns in the data relating the likelihood of a center’s demise to its location and characteristics?

Few emerging technologies hold as much promise as quantum computing and its related technologies. That is a fact not lost on federal agencies and legislators who have drafted bipartisan legislation funding the proposed creation of a U.S.-built quantum infrastructure network — basically a sprawling network with integrated quantum-based computers and related technologies.

If you’re waiting for the big rebound in oil prices, you might just need the patience of a tree. Oil prices are going to be dragging the bottom of the barrel for some time, if the September IEA Oil Market Report from the International Energy Agency is to be believed.

When E*Trade launched the first online trading platform for retail investors back in 1992, it triggered a tsunami of change that is still being felt in the financial services industry today. Investors who were unhappy with full-service brokers now had a choice. If they didn’t feel the need for the analysis, recommendations or expertise offered by a broker, they didn’t have to pay for it. Investors could make their decisions and investments any time, any place, all by themselves — and they could save money doing it.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, cruises were hotspots for the spread of the disease. Because of its early brush with COVID-19 outbreaks and the suspension of sailing for months after, the cruise line industry has worked hard to implement health and safety protocols that will encourage travelers to come back onboard. In this respect, cruise lines are ahead of the curve compared to other segments of the travel industry.

NASA has announced it will buy lunar soil from a commercial partner, marking another big step the agency is taking toward promoting the commercialization of space and the creation of a consortium of private vendors focused on the sector. The plan to retrieve lunar soil suggests the eventual mining of commodities from planets, asteroids and other stellar objects.

With the global economy in a slump, the question on the minds of many investors is: What will it take to spur more robust growth? As with many things, finding answers is a matter of following the money. In doing so, it’s hard to overlook the billions that big telecom and tech firms are pouring into the development and deployment of the fifth generation of mobile network technology, or 5G.

Bigger is not always better, even in the financial world. Less is sometimes more when it comes to investing. These are the lessons of the Son. No, not that Son. I’m talking about Masayoshi Son. If that name sounds familiar it’s with good reason. Masayoshi Son is the founder and CEO of SoftBank Group, a company that owns a beef stew of telecommunication and internet companies.

Recent history is rife with comparisons between machine computing power and human (organic) computing power. Thanks to advances in technology, that comparison has reached the financial advice field. Specifically, robo-advisers have been stepping into the role of financial decisions and portfolio allocations. The question is — should they?