Special Collab with DFA Live: Megatrends 2026 | Nucleus Investment Insights

·52 min·5 clips

Martin North and Damien Classen reveal eight megatrends that will silently reshape your investments over the next decade.

Martin North from Digital Finance and Analytics hosts Damien Classen from Nucleus Wealth to explore eight megatrends for long-term investment outlooks. They begin by framing these trends against short-term market cycles, using the internet's rise as a historical example. The first trend discussed is inequality, highlighting decades of wealth concentration and its effects on demand and inflation, illustrated by pandemic stimulus. They link this to political systems favoring the wealthy and rising populism. Demographics form the second trend, focusing on aging populations, dependency ratios, and migration's role in workforce replacement, with mentions of China and Japan. The third trend is female workforce participation, noting its plateau after decades of growth and implications for mortgage lending and childcare costs. Private debt is the fourth trend, identified as a key inflationary driver distinct from public debt, with Australia as a case study. Corporate taxation is the fifth trend, showing a 50-year decline in rates contributing to earnings growth, though nearing limits. Global trade is the sixth trend, stalled since the financial crisis with Trump's tariffs adding uncertainty, though complex supply chains like chips resist unwinding. Energy costs are the seventh trend, analyzing solar and battery cost declines versus fossil fuels, and how high prices affect manufacturing in places like the UK and Australia. Obesity is the eighth trend, a 50-year rise now potentially stabilizing due to weight-loss drugs, impacting healthcare and food industries. The hosts conclude by noting these trends' interconnections and gradual nature, promising a follow-up on medium-term outlooks for 2026-2027.

As heard by us

A patient long-range market discussion testing debt, inequality, taxation, and earnings against trends investors may expect to continue.

Martin North, Damien Classen, Digital Finance and Analytics, Nucleus Wealth, and What the World Funds use this single-episode review to pull back from market noise and examine eight long-term megatrends that could shape investment thinking over the next five to ten years.

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Why you'd press play

You want to step back from market noise and see which 50-year megatrends could shape investments over the next five to ten years.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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