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In 2017, investors experienced the best of all possible worlds—uncommon synchronized global growth, strong acceleration in corporate earnings and continuing unprecedented monetary support—that fueled capital market appreciation across the globe. However, investors face a looming milestone in 2018, as they approach Peak Central Bank. The U.S. is well into its monetary normalization phase and other countries will begin to follow. Will the impact of shrinking central bank balance sheets remove the support investors have enjoyed for nearly a decade?

From news out of Washington, to improving global growth and strong corporate profits, a number of factors could shape the markets in 2018, including the impact of the recent Tax Reform Bill may have on your portfolio. Christopher Hyzy, Chief Investment Officer for Bank of America Global Wealth & Investment Management, provides important insights into opportunities and risks in the coming year—and what it could all mean for you.

When looking beyond the short-term demand factors, there are several long-term secular themes that are positive for specialty assets. Most notably among them, growing populations, increasing spending power of the emerging market middle class, and rising urbanization.

The set of factors and circumstances which together produced 2017's robust investment returns might be described as a "Goldilocks" scenario, one in which the positive forces pressing on the global economy and financial markets were warming noticeably, but not so hot already as to prompt dramatic cooling efforts from central bankers.

What will the world look like in 2040 if vital natural resources become scarce?

The 13th edition of the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, undertaken with Marsh & McLennan Companies, examines the evolving macro-level risk landscape and highlights the systematic threats that may disrupt expectations.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act significantly affects the ability of the managers of investment funds to receive long-term capital gains with respect to their carried interest. Under current law, the manager of an investment fund can receive a “profits interest” (also known as a “carried interest” or a “promoted interest”) tax-free. In addition, there is a three-year hold requirement for carried interests.

Operational improvements are a key lever for achieving value creation after a deal closes. There are three critical ways private equity firms can both protect and grow value through operations.

Detailed analyses and quantitative rigor go into every sound investment decision. To make matters more challenging, we are constantly battling our instincts, which can pull us in conflicting directions and get in the way of sound investment discipline.