AI spending is boosting U.S. economic growth. Critics worry about the potential impact on the U.S. workforce if AI replaces human labor. But the story may be far broader: the rise of independent AI agents could make existing workers more productive, leading to more jobs rather than fewer.

Every boom eventually becomes a source for an analogy. Railroads. Dot-coms. Shale. As AI spending accelerates, history is being used less to understand the present and more to shortcut it. The risk is not excess optimism—it’s false certainty.

Who doesn’t love a “Monday Morning Quarterback”?! While often annoying, it can still be useful to consider “how things could have gone”—and to course-correct investment decisions. We consider an “alternative” history of the ever-popular “alts” in the context of a balanced portfolio.

Rankings of the 50 busiest airports in the world show the rising wealth of emerging markets, continued dominance of U.S. travelers, and the outsized importance of global connectors. Outside the turbulence of 2020 and talks of deglobalization, the world has never been more interconnected.