2017 has been a good year for US stock-market indices, in large measure due to the staggering performances of the Big Five of the technology sector, which are hitting levels not seen since the dotcom boom 20 years ago. Characterized by unmatched success in such areas as platform strength, innovation reinvestment, acquisitions and talent attraction, these technology giants seem guaranteed to keep on winning.
In the United States, the average car spends 96 percent of its time parked on a parking space or in a garage. The rest of the world isn’t much better. Yet, regardless of all those cars just sitting and doing nothing, it is reported that 1.2 million people are killed in road accidents per year worldwide.
Blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin, is poised to enter the mainstream with about 30 medium and large banks planning to put it into use by 2017. Applications range from reference data (real-time sharing of information about transactions within a bank and with external parties), retail payments, consumer lending and trade finance.