For all the self-congratulation of Western central bankers and economic policymakers when the world pulled out of the recession caused by the global financial crisis, it was China that really made the difference back then.

Is SoftBank, the Japanese financial institution headed by Masayoshi Son, fueling a stock market bubble with its new strategy of speculating heavily in derivatives markets in technology shares?

Who really wants to go back to oil at less than $20 a barrel, as Brent crude was in April? Or minus $38, where West Texas Intermediate (WTI) briefly fell the same month?

It has been accepted wisdom for some time that companies that adhere to the ESG rules — standards associated with environmental regulation, social responsibility and corporate governance — deserve a premium over other, more conventional corporations.

The big debate in the world of corporate energy is whether or not Saudi Aramco will be able to pay the $75 billion (SR281 billion) dividend it pledged at the time of the initial public offering (IPO) last year.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, economists and market analysts have been debating the shape of the recovery from the savage recession brought on by economic lockdowns and travel restrictions.

Whatever happens in the coming US presidential election, it looks as though one enduring legacy of the Trump era will be the decline of the dollar as the world’s chosen currency for trade.

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) had another busy time from April to July. It was rather less dramatic than in the first three months of 2020, but significant nonetheless.

News that OPEC had slightly downgraded its estimate of the pace of recovery in global oil markets this year was met with glee by the doom-mongers, but it makes little difference to the prognosis for world energy markets.

My 11-year-old daughter Amira has begun taking a big interest in the world of high finance and geopolitical strategy and has already developed some pretty strong views for one so young.