Financial Mindset

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s AI talk at a university commencement speech this weekend drew a chorus of boos . But if the students’ reaction was a sign of anxiety, or ambivalence, about the rapid onslaught of AI in our daily lives, the message clearly did not reach Google headquarters.  At the company’s annual developer conference in Mountain View, Calif. on Tuesday, AI was the overwhelming, and virtually sole focus, of the roughly two hours of keynote presentations delivered by executives. Google showcased a variety of new ways AI will be integrated even more deeply across its widely used family of products, from search and email to productivity software and smart glasses. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, kicked off the Google I/O event praising AI’s role in helping students prep for exams and allowing artists and musicians to get into their “creative flow” as the world moves into the “agentic AI era.” In a very visible sign of how important...

In the mid-1990s, when Percy Weatherall was CEO of Hongkong Land and Michael Smith was a junior property cadet at Jones Lang Wootton, Weatherall offered Smith a job. Smith turned him down as he was already committed to UBS in Sydney. Weatherall, Smith recalls, “wasn’t very happy. I don’t think he had many people say no to him.”  Three decades later, Smith sat in that same corner office, newly installed as the company’s CEO. At his welcome dinner, he tracked down Weatherall and reminded him of the episode. The former boss had forgotten it entirely. Hongkong Land is one of Hong Kong’s most storied developers. Founded in 1889, it’s the largest commercial landlord in Hong Kong’s Central district, owner of 4.8 million square feet of prime office and retail property in the city’s commercial heart: Exchange Square, home to the stock exchange; Jardine House, with a government-protected harbor view ; and the Landmark retail complex.  But...

Forget your salary—this space billionaire says a simple kids marshmallow experiment can reveal whether you’re destined to stay middle class for life.  The classic psychology experiment sees four-year-olds given one marshmallow and a choice: eat it now, or wait until the researcher returns and get two. Most kids can’t resist. And according to Dylan Taylor, philanthropist and CEO of Voyager Technologies, that same impulse is exactly what keeps most people stuck financially in adulthood. “It’s this deferred gratification,” Taylor, who made his first million before hitting 30, explains to Fortune . “It’s like, do you have the mental discipline to defer your gratification?” In his view, grown adults face the same choice every time they sign a car lease or tap a credit card for something they can’t yet afford. “I see a lot of those things—cars and planes and boats and all that stuff…. I support all that stuff when you can afford it, but most peopl...

It’s all-knowing, omnipresent, and somewhere between one to two billion people in the world subscribe to it. It’s not Catholicism—it’s AI—and its usage among the world’s population is increasingly becoming a concern for some, especially as reports of how sycophantic it can be is leading to real-world harms. Among those concerned with its use is Pope Leo XIV, who approved the creation of a new Vatican commission on artificial intelligence on May 16. The move comes days before the pope is set to release his first papal encyclical (an official letter written by the Pope to guide bishops and practitioners on whatever subject through Catholicism) on AI usage. He’ll be joined by Christopher Olah, the Anthropic cofounder who developed Claude, on May 25. The commission marks the first time the Catholic Church has formally coordinated its AI engagement under a single body, and arrives as governments worldwide remain divided on how, or whether, to regu...

We live in an era of fast-moving, interconnected crises — from antimicrobial resistance and climate-related health threats to pandemics. Yet, many health systems remain ill-equipped to respond, while also struggling with aging populations, workforce constraints ,  and the growing pressure to adapt to increasingly complex and rapidly changing conditions. To address systemic flaws, as well as current and future challenges, more agile and resilient health systems are required — and innovation is vital. Investing in innovation throughout the value chain strengthens not only health outcomes, but also wider resilience and broader economic stability, national security ,  and sustainable growth. This is because innovation provides tools — clinical, digital ,  and organizational — that enable rapid adaptation and a proactive, preventative approach to health challenges. With the growing use of data and frontier technologies, digital tools are rapidly be...

Stock futures dipped Sunday as investors were forced to confront the inconvenient reality that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed with oil markets edging closer to a cliff’s edge. Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average fell 123 points, or 0.25%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.09%, and Nasdaq futures lost 0.04%. U.S. oil futures rose 1.75% to $107.26 a barrel, while Brent crude climbed 1.1% to $110.50. Gold fell 0.14% to $4,555.30 per ounce. The U.S. dollar was up 0.03% against the euro and up 0.01% against the yen. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was steady at 4.597%. Last week’s euphoria came to screeching halt on Friday, when the U.S.-China summit failed to produce a breakthrough that would reopen the strait and allow oil supplies to flow again. Given the fading hopes that energy-fueled inflation will come back down soon, bonds sold off sharply, with U.S., German, Japanese, and U.K. yields all soaring while stocks tumbled. For the first t...

Four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets collided Sunday at an air show in Idaho, a show organizer said. Emergency crews responded after the two planes collided during the show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho. All four of the crew members from the planes ejected safely, said Kim Sykes, marketing director with Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped to plan the air show. Sykes said the crash occurred off base and she did not see the crash but saw the smoke afterward. The base said in a social media post that it was locked down following the incident during the Gunfighter Skies Air Show. Responders were on the scene and an investigation was underway. Multiple witnesses reported two planes collided and crashed, and videos posted online showed four parachutes opening in the sky as the aircraft plummet to the ground near the base about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boise. No other information was immediately available, said a person who ...