The prevalence of anxiety and depression has doubled in some countries during the pandemic, according to a report from the OECD. “Risk factors generally associated with poor mental health — financial insecurity, unemployment, fear” have heightened since COVID-19 hit, the report says, while beneficial factors, including social connection, “fell dramatically.”

The study notes that “differences in the openness of populations to discussing their mental state also hampers cross-country comparability,” referring to the stigma around mental health. Mental health is stigmatized through negative judgements, discrimination or dismissiveness toward those with trauma, depression, etc., which becomes a barrier to getting help, according to NAMI. But the spike in mental health issues has also led to a growing willingness to recognize and talk about such issues — chipping away at the stigma. 

Most countries have increased mental health resources during the pandemic. But, the OECD says we need a systemic-level response that includes assured mental health services and employers who actively support and contribute to the mental health of their employees.

For many countries, inflation rates hit year-long highs. According to the U.S. National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country’s core CPI — an index that accounts for the volatility of energy and food prices — increased 4.58% from October 2021, a year-high. Similarly, departments from the U.K. and China report a year-over-year increase. China’s NBS reported a 1.5% increase for October while the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics reported a 4.2% increase.

For the United Kingdom, inflation is a symptom of rising energy costs as a result of Europe’s gas crisis, statisticians say. Transport is the second-largest contributor to inflation, followed by restaurants and hotels and education. Similarly for China, the rise in inflation is due to a rising cost of energy, as well as a vegetable shortage caused by heavy rainfall.

While autonomous cars have yet to make a significant impact in consumers’ lives, investors see an opportunity in the automated trucking industry. According to CB Insights, companies have raised an average of $650 million for 2021. These companies cover everything from the actual self-driving truck technology and logistics surrounding fleet coordination.

Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is the most well-funded company, with a total of $5.7 billion raised throughout its lifetime. It recently announced a partnership with UPS in piloting self-driving trucks in Texas, alleviating supply chain issues caused by the labor shortage. 

Meanwhile, China-based Manbang Group focuses on freight matching — pairing cargo freight with drivers. It has raised a total of almost $3.7 billion. Previously, this was managed by brokers, but automation is increasingly taking the lead. Manbang uses its automation software to connect the 10 million verified truckers with 5 million cargo consignors on its platform. 

There may be other surprising beneficiaries to autonomous trucking, as increased efficiency and lower operating costs could lead to higher congestion in urban centers — making rail a more appealing option.

During COP26, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) announced that it now includes over 445 financial institutions in 45 countries. The alliance mobilizes more than $130 trillion in private capital. GFANZ was launched in April 2021 to accelerate decarbonization and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as indicated by the Paris Agreement.

Stopping climate change will require coordination across the financial system, and to achieve this goal, GFANZ brings together existing and new net-zero finance initiatives. Participating institutions are required to set science-based goals to reach net-zero emissions — including interim 2030 targets — and commit to transparent reporting in line with the criteria detailed by the United Nations Race to Zero. 

As more firms in the financial sector align their lending, investing, asset management and underwriting practices with net-zero targets, companies can expect to face increasing pressure to decarbonize and disclose their emissions and climate risks.

Frankfurt, Toronto and Hong Kong are the cities most at risk of a housing bubble, according to new research by Switzerland-based UBS. Its latest Global Real Estate Bubble Index found nine cities around the world that have a high index score. Meanwhile, Madrid, Milan and Warsaw are deemed to be cities with “fairly valued” housing, and Dubai has a negative index score, indicating that its housing is undervalued.

Overall, bubble risk has increased, along with the potential severity of a price correction, as a result of rising house prices across the world. UBS has found that growth in home prices increased 6% from mid-year 2020 to mid-year 2021 — the highest rate of growth since 2014.

To determine a city’s index score, UBS tracks whether a city shows symptoms of previous real estate bubbles, such as a decoupling of prices from local incomes and rents, and imbalances in the real economy, such as excessive lending and construction activity. In Frankfurt, for example, housing prices have increased steadily every year since 2016, in part due to a focus on building luxury housing, but the average price-to-income ratio has doubled in the last decade, leaving housing unaffordable for many. These trends point to a possible correction if the housing bubble were to burst.