All articles by Joseph Mariathasan
-
FeaturesCentral banks and cryptocurrency reserve: set for a breakthrough?
After courting the crypto community during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump issued an executive order in early March to create a US strategic bitcoin reserve, as well as a national digital assets stockpile of tokens other than bitcoin.
-
Special ReportArtificial intelligence is transforming Asia’s financial sector
Asian markets are adopting AI at varying paces, but the potential for further development in the financial sector is significant, say experts
-
AnalysisDo artificial intelligence agents herald a brave new era in investments?
The artificial intelligence (AI) landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. While chatbots dominated the early phases of consumer AI applications, we are now witnessing a jump in AI evolution through the creation of AI agents.
-
Opinion PiecesEverything, everywhere, all at once: the macro trends shaping today’s world
Through the lens of technology, investors can understand geopolitics, demographics, migration, and the potentially existential impacts of climate change
-
AnalysisThe business case for nature: why companies need to act
As an ex-physicist, I feel confident in proclaiming that economics is not a science but, rather, the study of human behaviour on a mass scale. Why does that matter?
-
FeaturesBriefing: The challenge of investing in Europe’s energy transition
The way the European economy powers itself is undergoing a fundamental shift, driven by market forces and policymakers. But while the direction of travel is clear, the path to a different energy mix is tortuous and the shift may be much slower than required to meet Europe’s target to be net zero by 2050.
-
Asset Class ReportsInvestors eye return to European small cap equities
Largely dependent on domestic investors, interest has been growing in the opportunities offered by Europe’s smaller companies
-
AnalysisEurope must prepare for a China after Xi Jinping
Whatever the big issues of the 21st century, whether climate change, the environment, restoring economies post-COVID, fighting poverty or ending the war in Ukraine, they are much easier to resolve if countries work together.
-
AnalysisCan UK DC pension schemes plug the venture capital funding gap?
Europe is becoming an exciting place for tech start-ups, but they are receiving little support from European pension funds, which have eschewed venture capital since the bursting of the dotcom bubble in the late 1990s.
-
Asset Class ReportsValuations for AI-related firms are starting to heat up
There are concerns that the market for acquiring artificial intelligence-related companies is showing signs of overheating
-
Asset Class ReportsWhy emerging market debt deserves more scrutiny
Investors are becoming more sophisticated in how they approach emerging market debt
-
Special ReportHave factor investing strategies had their day?
Factors have inspired indices, spin-offs and a variety of investment strategies but it has become hard to argue that they will offer investors a persistent future premium
-
Asset Class ReportsLocal currency debt markets now more compelling
Bond yields are now more attractive because local central banks hiked interest rates sooner than their developed market counterparts
-
AnalysisThe Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and his new China
Visiting China in the late 1990s and early 2000s was an exhilarating experience for any business traveller. There was a sense that the country was opening and moving forward
-
Special ReportTime to understand India
The country has much to offer investors, with impressive GDP growth, an innovative tech industry and soaring consumer demand
-
FeaturesNAV finance takes hold as a niche form of private credit
Private equity investments are by their nature illiquid, which is why PE general partners (GPs) raising a new fund only call on the committed capital when it needs to be deployed in a new investment – and that may be up to a few years after the fund closes.
-
Special ReportPrivate equity in India: growth of a new investment class
Private equity had a faltering start in India, but the market is maturing and offering plenty of opportunity
-
AnalysisDeep-tech startups: from academic know how to commercial viability
Many would argue that universities have been set up in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, so perhaps the idea of seeking commercial applications for university research detracts from the beauty of that ideal. That certainly was the attitude in Oxford when I completed my own doctorate in physics four decades ago. But times have changed and the UK, and Europe more generally, is desperate to encourage the growth of innovative companies that can rival those being churned out in the US.
-
AnalysisDevelopment banks need to be more transparent to mobilise private capital
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have caught the imagination of impact-oriented investors, as achieving them requires mobilisation of private capital on a massive scale. However, taking on the risks associated with many of the SDG-oriented investment goals is too much to bear for many private investors.
-
Asset Class ReportsMagnificent seven stocks suck up capital from other sectors
Concentration of US equity markets around a handful of names remains an intractable issue
