Breaking Through the Blood Brain Barrier

New tests and treatments may soon be available

Ric Edelman: It's Wednesday, August 23rd. Here's a test for you. Ready? Remember these words: Flower bed, foot, green, fork. Now draw a football field. Now, name as many countries as you can in one minute. Now tell me today's date. Now list the words that start with the letter L. Now, tell me those five words I told you to remember a moment ago.

What I just did is give you a memory test. These have been used by doctors for 50 years. It helps them diagnose Alzheimer's disease. Doctors might realize you have a cognitive impairment, but the test doesn't help them understand why you're impaired. Is it a vitamin deficiency, a stroke, an infection?

So there's new science, emerging biomarkers. These are proteins that can be detected in blood, spinal fluid on brain scans. And they reveal if there's disease in the brain. Biomarker-based diagnosis can improve a patient's quality of life because it leads to better treatment. Right now, these tests involve expensive PET scans or invasive spinal taps, but now blood tests are coming onto the market. They're much less expensive, they're less painful and they're more accessible. You'll be hearing about them in coming months and years.

Hey, do you remember when we were kids and Earth Day was brand new? Fast forward to today. We see focus on the environment everywhere. Sure, we all want clean air, clean water, but we're also dealing with the depletion of natural resources, even inequality in fighting these issues. That's a big challenge for consumers and businesses. Society as a whole. We all know the problems. Greenhouse gas. Loss of biodiversity. Water scarcity. The generation of so much waste. Where to store it, how to dispose of it.

Businesses are not ignoring this. Every industry has companies that are trying to significantly reduce their environmental footprint in the energy sector. Green and clean technologies are reducing carbon emissions and increasing energy efficiency. Solar panels and wind turbines are generating clean electricity in transportation. Electric vehicles are becoming more popular as people look for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. In agriculture, farmers are reducing their environmental impact using precision agriculture with sensors and data analytics to optimize crop yields while minimizing the use of water, fertilizer and pesticides in construction.

Energy efficient buildings are environmentally friendly. They use sustainable and nontoxic materials like bamboo flooring. In manufacturing, 3D printing reduces waste by producing only the parts you need. 3d printing also uses less energy than traditional manufacturing methods. These are just some examples.

There's a lot being developed, and that means investing opportunities in renewable energy, energy storage, smart grid, wastewater treatment, waste management, vertical farming, 3D printing and more. By 2050, cumulative investment across clean technologies is projected to hit $100 trillion. The goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by the end of the decade and to do that, we've got to increase our use of renewable energy efficient water systems, electric vehicles, biofuels, low emission hydrogen, public transportation systems, green buildings and sustainable agriculture practices. 

And in order to do all of that, we've got to quadruple our spending in this area from the $1.3 trillion now that we're spending to $5 trillion. We're going to be seeing major investments of the world's 2,000 largest companies. 40% of them have already agreed to be net zero in emissions. That means massive spending on clean energy technologies like wind and solar electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells.

Amazon, for example, says it's going to be 100% renewable by 2025. Microsoft, Google, Target, Walmart, they're also leading the way along with Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, Lyft, Siemens, Bayer, Unilever, AstraZeneca, hundreds of other companies. The conclusion: Corporate sustainability efforts are in sync with government policies, and the amount of money being spent in this area is unprecedented. Hydrogen electrolyzer manufacturers, fuel cell producers, renewable energy. All this and more are underway in countries all over the world. Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Egypt, Chile, India and of course, here in the US. You name it, everyone everywhere gets it. And governments worldwide are providing funds for dozens of projects here in the US. The Department of Energy is spending $7 billion to build clean hydrogen hubs throughout the country.

This is why you ought to look at the Global X Clean Tech ETF. The symbol is CTEC (c-tech). It invests in companies that are involved in the technologies that are reducing negative environmental impacts, renewable energy, energy storage, smart grid, energy efficiency, pollution reduction. It tracks the performance of the index Global Clean Tech Index, which consists of 41 companies around the world, and it's passively managed. Take a look at the Global X Clean Tech ETF, symbol CTEC. You can learn more about it at Global X ETFs.com. And if you're an investor, talk to your financial advisor about it.

You know, a lot of people call it the holy grail of crypto. A Bitcoin ETF. Bitcoin's been around since 2009, and we don't have a Bitcoin ETF, at least not yet. But there are now nine new applications in front of the SEC. And the rumor is any day now, the SEC may very well approve one or more of these Bitcoin ETF applications. What does this mean for you as a financial advisor? What does it mean for you as an investor?

You need to read new white paper. It's free. You can read it online or download it. What You Need to Know About Spot Bitcoin ETFs. It's a quick easy read and it'll help you understand what this is. Why it matters and why you need to understand what's going on. Download it today. Just go to DACFP.com.

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