In my latest article for Firstlinks, I reflect on why 2025 delivered another strong year for equities, supported by the continued combination of disinflation and positive economic growth – with much of the strength driven by enthusiasm around artificial intelligence (AI).
According to a survey by Finder and, separately, modelling from investment and annuities firm Challenger, Australians are being haunted. Not in their homes, mind you, but in their bank accounts. The ghost, however, isn’t inflation; it’s the distant and diminishing finish line for what’s considered ‘financial peace of mind.
I joined Sean Aylmer for Fear and Greed’s summer series to talk about the growth of private credit, why it has expanded so quickly, and what investors should look for when assessing these opportunities. We also discussed how private credit can complement a diversified portfolio, providing an income stream that is uncorrelated to equity markets.
In my video insight ‘How General Purpose Technology booms end”, last month, I spoke about the five stages of a GPT boom and the inevitable, sometimes violent, way they end.
As investors, if we’re intellectually honest, we’re bound to be wrong a few times more than we would like. And the longer the investment career, the higher the accumulated mistakes pile up. So how do successful investors survive them and continue to build on their success?
Goldman Sachs Research represents one of the largest stockbroking firms in the world. So, it should come as no surprise that the investment bank has recently published its stock market outlook for the next decade, predicting an average annual return of almost eight per cent.
According to Google, Matt Stoller is a prominent American writer, researcher, and anti-monopoly advocate, known for his work at the American Economic Liberties Project and his popular Substack newsletter, BIG, which focuses on market power, antitrust, and the war against monopolies.
2025 has been an eventful year, with some strong returns – but what comes next? I joined Sean Aylmer from Fear and Greed for their Summer Series to break down the forces that shaped markets this year.
Time Magazine has awarded the 2025 person of the year to…wait for it…a group of people. The architects of artificial intelligence (AI) have been nominated for this year’s cover. Before the advent of digital magazines, billions were spent annually on buying physical magazines representing every topic and subculture known to man.
Let’s state the obvious right at the outset: No one knows for certain if the equity market will crash. The reality of investing is that we can rarely identify a bubble until after it has burst, which means we can never be sure when we are inside one.
Debt nuances
I just read the following sentence: “Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) rich clouds are now raising multi-billion-dollar debt with GPUs as collateral. ”
It got me thinking…
Figure 1. General Purpose Technology (GPT) booms and busts, Gartner’s hype cycle
Source: Gartner
In the railroad boom of the 1800s, U. S.
