Investing in oil and gas
Ultra-high-net-worth investors and family offices are showing more interest in mineral rights and other oil and gas assets, driven by the energy pressures of the Iran war and the artificial-intelligence boom, according to investment advisors. But it has become harder to find deals at attractive valuations due to increased competition from institutional investors and private-equity firms, they said. Family offices were able to make opportunistic plays in oil and gas in the years after the Covid pandemic as traditional investors backed away from the sector due to pressure from environmentally conscious stakeholders. Now, dealmaking in the space is seeing a resurgence, with oil and gas deal spend for the first half of 2026 hitting a two-year record, according to research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. The boost was especially striking for gas production projects, with deal spend in that sector exceeding $32bn, the highest level in over a decade, the firm found.
(Adapted from “Wealthy Investors Seek Oil And Gas Assets, But Bargains Are Scarce,” by Hayley Cuccinello, published on September 10, 2026, by CNBC)
The American dream
Dick Portillo opened a hot-dog stand in 1963 without knowing how to cook a hot dog. Half a century later, he sold the company for $1bn. By 2014, the stand he’d built with $1,100 had become the Midwest’s largest privately owned restaurant company with 4,000 employees and no franchises or outside investors. A single Portillo’s could bring in $9 million a year, roughly three times a typical McDonald’s. His story is hardly unique. Across America, such business owners — we call them Everywhere Millionaires — have built extraordinary fortunes running ordinary businesses. Some launched their own ventures, working long hours and reinvesting the profits to stay afloat and grow. Others inherited a family firm and built upon the success of prior generations. There are three million of them, collectively worth more than $65 trillion, according to our analysis of the Survey of Consumer Finances. The number of $100m-plus business owners has, adjusting for inflation, more than quadrupled since 2001.
(Adapted from “The American Dream Is Alive. And It’s Minting Millionaires,” by Eric Zwick and Owen Zidar, published on September 4, 2026, by the Wall Street Journal)
New jobs in AI
Perhaps machines will make many humans unemployable eventually — but there is no sign of it yet. On September 4th, the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that the American economy added 162,000 jobs in August, far above expectations. The unemployment rate is 4.1pc, lower than in almost 90pc of months over the past half-century. Young workers, often cast as the first victims of artificial intelligence, are doing just fine: the gap between unemployment among 20-24-year-olds and the overall rate is close to a multi-decade low. Some companies and workers are being severely disrupted by AI. Hiring in professional and business services is running about 10pc below the average in 2015-19. Tech giants such as Microsoft and Meta are trimming headcounts as they reorganise their businesses around the technology. However, initial effects of the technology on employment look positive, with AI creating a lot of jobs to replace those it has destroyed.
(Adapted from “The Jobs Apocalypse Is Postponed. An AI Jobs Boom Is Here,” published on September 4, 2026, by The Economist)
A prawn superpower
Ecuador has become the master of prawn production. Prawn production in Ecuador is lean manufacturing incarnate. Vast rectangular pools tessellate the Guayas delta, centre of the aquaculture belt. Its brackish waters hide billions of translucent bodies. Larvae are cultivated in greenhouse-style hatcheries, fattened in open-air ponds, hoovered into lorries, then taken to packaging plants where they are frozen. Inefficiencies are constantly hunted down. Containers filled with bricks of prawns known as “HOSO” (head-on, shell-on) cross the oceans, mostly east to west across the Pacific. In 2020, the South American country surpassed India as the world’s top exporter. Last year it sold more than $8bn-worth of the crustacean, more than India, Vietnam and Indonesia combined. Once an oil nation, Ecuador has become a pesco-state. Prawn production furnishes 6pc of GDP, a larger share than carmaking contributes in Germany.
(Adapted from “A Prawn Superpower Rises,” published on September 2, 2026, by The Economist)
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, September 14th, 2026
