Author: Charlotte

It may not have dominated the headlines yet, but Qivalis has been quietly building momentum for several months. The European bank-led joint venture is developing a fully regulated, 1:1 euro-backed stablecoin that is on track to launch in the second half of 2026 under the supervision of the Dutch Central Bank. Danske Bank and ING are among the founding members of what has now grown into a consortium of 37 banks.When our editorial team saw that Sir Howard Davies, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Qivalis, was speaking at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, covering his session became essential.…

Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental and public health emergencies that the world is currently facing. Exposure to air pollutants, such as particulate matter, can have detrimental effects on health, cognition, and can also affect human behaviour. This can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, premature death, and also to other negative economic consequences such as lower educational outcomes, higher crime rates, and reduced labour productivity.  Our group of LSE-based economists and behavioral scientists analyses various complex aspects of the economics of air pollution (ambient and indoor), including the costs of air pollution, the health and well-being impacts…

Industrial real estate has shifted from boring warehouses to critical logistics hubs. Investors choosing between Lineage (LINE +4.05%) and Rexford Industrial Realty (REXR 0.47%) are weighing global scale against regional dominance.Lineage focuses on the specialized niche of cold storage, managing complex food supply chains across multiple continents. Rexford Industrial Realty takes a different approach by concentrating exclusively on the high-demand infill markets of Southern California. Both provide essential infrastructure, but their geographic footprints and operational complexities create distinct investment profiles for those looking at the sector.The case for LineageLineage operates a massive network of temperature-controlled warehouses, serving as a vital…

Morningstar estimates the stablecoin market could grow to $1.45 trillion by 2035, from just $300.0 billion today. The most promising uses that drive this growth include cryptocurrency trading, business-to-business payments, emerging-market deposits, and remittances.Despite those growth expectations, our projections arrive well below some of our peers, who appear to be extrapolating too much from the strong growth seen in 2025. We believe that more infrastructure needs to be built to drive adoption, and that the benefits of stablecoins are not as universal as some proponents suggest. The Possible Impact of StablecoinsSo, who stands to benefit from this growing but generally…

(June 22): Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its first-ever notes offering on Monday and said it had about US$100.8 billion (RM418.4 billion) in cash and cash equivalents as of June 19, days after its blockbuster US stock market IPO.The rockets-to-AI company debuted on the Nasdaq on June 12 after raising US$85.7 billion from its initial public offering, making it one of the world’s most valuable firms.SpaceX has increased spending on AI infrastructure and the development of its next-generation Starship rocket, investments that have weighed on profitability despite strong growth at its Starlink satellite internet business.Its revenue rose 33% to US$18.67 billion…

Gold is on track for a fourth consecutive weekly decline, while silver extended its steep selloff after breaking below key technical support levelsGold and silver prices remained under pressure, with both precious metals heading for weekly losses as a stronger U.S. dollar and expectations of higher U.S. interest rates continued to weigh on investor sentiment.Gold was on track for a fourth consecutive weekly decline, while silver extended its steep selloff after breaking below key technical support levels. Investors have largely reduced exposure to non-yielding precious metals amid growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates further this…

India’s passive funds recorded an increase in assets under management (AUM), reaching Rs 14.77 lakh crore in May 2026, as revealed by the NSE Nifty Passive Insight report, despite the industry experiencing net outflows of Rs 402 crore.The report indicates a significant upturn in passive equity funds, which were primarily responsible for this growth, garnering net inflows of Rs 9,488 crore over the period. Equity ETFs absorbed Rs 6,692 crore, and equity index funds saw inflows of Rs 2,796 crore, indicating a sustained investor interest in equity-based passive products.However, market volatility mitigated the effects of these inflows on overall assets.…

Picture the 1930s economic slump, absent Keynes’s challenge to prevailing thought. Classical economists were stuck with the mindset that laissez-faire would ultimately produce a recovery. Keynes confronted this consensus, demonstrating that – in the circumstances of the era – government intervention was indispensable, and so rescued a beleaguered economy. As he explained in the preface to his General Theory:The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.[1]While UK higher education is currently buoyed up by international demand, there’s a disquieting undercurrent of pessimistic sentiment, similar to the mood of the 1920s and the fin de siècle apprehension of…

During the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, the Denver Nuggets opted to trade down from their No. 26 pick on the board for three second round picks–– one that was in this year’s draft at No. 35 that would be used to land Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile, and two more future picks to be utlized down the line.However, it seems like the Nuggets at least had some conversations about doing the opposite in the first day of the draft; potentially trading up the board from where they sat at the 26th pick.That’s because they had their eye on…

Stripe processed $1.4 trillion in total payment volume in 2024, a figure roughly 2.6 times the size of Ireland’s entire 2024 GDP and, by current run-rate estimates for 2025, now closer to three-and-a-half times the output of the country its founders left behind. The company that handles all of it was started by two brothers from Limerick who built the first version of the API in a Palo Alto apartment shared with a third roommate, before either of them turned 25. Patrick Collison was 22. John was 20. By the time they incorporated what was then called /dev/payments in 2010,…