Opinion

Due to Donald Trump’s erratic policies, all eyes are on the United States bond market, where the bond vigilantes have run wild. But there is also unrest in the Japanese bond market—and perhaps that should worry us even more.

Artificial intelligence continues to be underestimated—both in terms of its scale and the speed of its adoption. We’ve seen this story before. Each time, revolutionary technologies were massively underestimated by analysts, investors, and even the most optimistic visionaries. The same is happening now with artificial intelligence, but at a pace that puts all previous technological revolutions in the shade.

It’s done. With the deciding vote cast—no less—by Vice President J.D. Vance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed in the US Senate. Yet another piece of evidence that bond investors stubbornly refuse to acknowledge: their asset class is becoming obsolete.

For generations of investors, the gospel was simple: invest in a balanced portfolio with 60 percent stocks and 40 percent bonds. This sacred formula was passed down from wealth manager to wealth manager, from father to son, as an immutable law of financial physics. But what happens when artificial intelligence scrutinizes this age-old wisdom?

Falling inflation and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) conviction that price increases will stabilize around two percent annually in the long run made it possible for Frankfurt to announce another rate cut earlier this month. With this move, the policy rate has now been more than halved compared to the summer of 2024. The ECB seems to be casting out the interest rate anchor and allowing itself to drift for a while.

As artificial intelligence takes over functions once handled by offshore teams, asset managers and their services firms face a new frontier, one that blends automation gains with urgent ESG questions.

The spectacular rally in Japanese equities appears to be over after many years of strong gains. Following years of underweight positioning, global investors have finally turned their attention to Japanese stocks, spurred by a recent aversion to U.S. equities—just as momentum is beginning to fade.

Under control. No, that title isn’t about Iranian airspace—although, with recent developments, an entire column could easily be dedicated to that as well. The title refers to the American consumer, who, despite all the uncertainty surrounding tariffs, has yet to throw in the towel.

The decline of value investing is not a recent phenomenon but a process that has been unfolding for over three decades. While many pinpoint its loss of effectiveness around 2007, Baruch Lev and Anup Srivastava demonstrate in their study that the strategy has in fact been structurally underperforming since the late 1980s. The key question is therefore: is value investing dead, or merely in a deep hibernation?

The question of how best to incorporate bitcoin into an investment portfolio is becoming increasingly relevant. As the digital currency gains mainstream acceptance, investors grapple with the practical considerations: should you buy crypto directly, or opt for traditional financial instruments?