Ken Philips

On 12 December 2025, a group of countries gathered in Washington, D.C. to sign a declaration few people outside policy circles noticed. There were no flags on podiums, no grand communiqués, no adversaries named. Yet what emerged from that meeting may end up shaping the global technology landscape more durably than many treaties that came before it. The declaration was called Pax Silica. The name sounded deliberately anodyne—almost academic. But behind it lay an idea both simple and...

The global aerospace and defense sector has entered what many investors increasingly view as a structurally supportive phase. Unlike past cycles driven purely by geopolitics or commercial aviation booms, today’s environment combines multiple long-duration forces: rising defense budgets, sustained geopolitical tension, the normalization of higher interest rates, and a multi-year recovery in commercial aerospace. Against this backdrop, U.S.-listed aerospace and defense equities have attracted...

The starting point for understanding today’s gold market is central bank balance sheets. Gold is first and foremost a monetary reserve asset, and its dynamics only make sense when viewed through that lens. As of today, global central banks collectively hold roughly 36,000–37,000 tonnes of gold, representing about 17–18% of all gold ever mined. This is close to historical highs in absolute terms, though still below the peak share reached under the Bretton Woods system. Ten years ago, around...