Commerce

I was recently asked a question that I hear all too often:

You have been studying today's most favored methods of working for many years. What are the big headlines about that? Just where are we going? Or rather, are we all going to stay home and work from there all the time ?

No, we’re not all going to “cocoon” and never leave our home offices! That would be insane.

You are probably wondering what the heck I am talking about....a carbon bubble? What's that?In the 1970s we were "conditioned" to believe that the world would run out of fossil fuel resources early in the 21st century. Remember the term "peak oil?" Much policy and financial forecasting by government and business was predicated on the peak oil forecasts. Turned out the forecast was wrong.

Many investors are beginning to think of water as an investable asset class – similar to oil or precious metals, but with less volatility.

When you buy a stock, you place a bet on how that stock will perform in the future. In a perfect world, where market insiders and manipulators are removed from the equation, the market is a terrific tool for determining the true value of companies being invested in. But what happens when the volume of data used to make decisions increases 100 million times, and trading volumes increase 100 million times, and trades can be transacted over 100 million times a second?

You don't have to be reminded. Forward looking folks know this time of year is when we re-assess our annual donations and find ways to help tilt the scales toward a more favorable tomorrow. But is there an aspect of ultimate self-interest?