It’s easy in times like these to feel like a waif amid forces. Geopolitics is shifting in real time. Artificial intelligence is accelerating faster than economic systems can absorb, and public discourse across television, newspapers and social media is increasingly dominated by hyperbole, blurring the line between fact and fiction. In this environment, it’s easy to lose one’s way.

Over the past several years, financial markets have been fuelled as much by expectation as by execution,but not anymore. This is no longer a theoretical environment. The real cost of capital is once again shapingbehaviour. Fiscal deficits are no longer abstract. Power grids, supply chains, labour markets and political systems are being tested by the physical and financial limits of the world they must now support.

Is this the top of the market? Should I get out? These are probably the biggest questions investors areasking today. Makes sense. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are at, or near, all-time highs, largely driven bya very narrow group of mega-cap tech and AI-related themes. Some may be wondering whether all thistech euphoria seems a little too reminiscent of the 2000 Tech Wreck.