It has been 35 years since a number of Member States agreed to remove border controls between themselves. From five countries at the time, the Schengen Area grew to 26, counting 420 million citizens. A whole generation of Europeans grew up with little memory of systematic internal border checks. Border checks have become anecdotal. Many Europeans organised their lives around the freedoms that Schengen offers.

It was fun in the beginning. Working from home seemed to be a nice and relaxing alternative. It is indeed an interesting feeling to work in your pyjamas and wander around the house unshaved or without any makeup - funny and unknown experience until this very moment of doing business from home.

While locked down by pandemic, some people are losing billions of euros every day, but others are sitting on real treasures. Covid-19 is bad news for most but a superb chance for a few. The race to deliver a working vaccine lined all major pharmaceutical players. Besides racing with the pandemic, companies need to race with the speed of the disease's spread.

All eyes are on the United States as the presidential race seems to be never-ending, even though the poll results have already been reported. Investors are still uncertain who will be the leader of the country. The turmoil accelerated as markets still need predictable direction. The big question has never been Biden or Trump, but having or not having a president in the White House. All US leaders, since Ronald Regan, have spurred the stock market in the beginning of their terms.

Do you remember anything about credit ratings? We mean the funny looking numbers and letters that used to make credit cheaper or expensive. Well, we should all forget about that era of financial discipline. With the coronavirus death toll surging to record highs, countries around the globe spurred spending, boosting debt numbers to record levels. No one really cares about ratings anymore.

The investment and industrial future seems to change its nature and direction as green-related funds step up their efforts to reduce global pollution and boost environmental projects. In the past, we were talking about the romantic ambitions of a bunch of ecological fractions. This stream has evolved and now has a key role in the global industrial governing. A whole new generation of fund managers has taken over the global economy. Today if you do not go green, you won't have the cash to afford to exist on the econ map. Politicians have also paved the way to press whole countries and economic sectors to reduce carbon-related emissions and boost green-related projects.

The fundamental picture for all precious metals and especially gold has never been better. Governments worldwide have been committed to suppressing interest rates on money funds and printing cash to solve their debt problems. Eventually, they will be forced to default or devalue - it is that simple!

Global oil demand is seen sliding as the rebound amid the Covid-19 lockdown appears weaker than expected, international producers and traders said. The new European policy focused on low carbon economy put additional pressure on the market. Demand for oil may have peaked last year, according to BP, which says the global market for crude might never recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

No matter how one reads the diplomatic deal announced Thursday between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and there will surely be many supporters and detractors given its historic nature, there is one conclusion that seems irrefutable: Israel was the biggest victor, Bilal Y. Saab writes to FP.

The data show that the United States has a competition problem. In many industries throughout the country, there is increased concentration, rising profit margins, declining entry, and low investment relative to profits. Moreover, stock market participants have been signaling the problem by assigning very high equity values to a relatively small subset of public firms earning monopoly profits.