Consumer Spending on the Rebound
Consumer spending as a whole is set to rebound strongly post Covid19. However, the recovery is likely to be uneven with high-income households with members who could work remotely being in a better position to spend.
Low-income households will likely not return to 2019 spending levels by 2024, especially US families that have lost jobs and face income uncertainty.
Full article: https://lnkd.in/dxs6bcG
Source: HBR
Interview: Stampede, Bitcoin and AI
Last week, I had the opportunity to do my first Facebook and YouTube Live Stream with Gary A. Fowler, venture capitalist, CEO, and Co-founder of GSD Venture Studios.
We not only had a brief discussion about the ‘Connectivity of the Global Private Capital Markets in a Decentralised World’ but had a candid conversation ranging from the Calgary Stampede to Scotland to Bitcoin and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the emerging world of decentralized finance.
It was great fun and in case you missed it, click below to listen in to the recording.
Bitcoin on Balance Sheets
The first quarter of 2021 witnessed increasing institutional involvement in cryptocurrencies and public companies Tesla and Square join Microstrategy in adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets.
Source: CoinDesk
Smartest Money Isn’t Buying (Yet)
As https://www.bing.com/search?q=warren+buffett&cvid=92f52ed28ecc437ba17b7df32c0e1bdf&aqs=edge.0.0l9.11732j0j1&pglt=2083&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=U531# takes centre stage this afternoon at 4 pm EST (9 pm BST) to host the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting, I’m looking forward to hearing his perspective on the coronavirus pandemic and implication for investors. Buffett has been surprisingly quiet over the past few months as the U.S. markets crashed and rebounded almost as swiftly.
It’s now confirmed, Buffett wasn’t getting ‘greedy‘ or going on a stock-buying spree in the last quarter. As the stock markets sold off, Buffett continued to build up his massive cash pile to a record $137 billion, up almost $10 billion from the end of the year. According to company filings, Berkshire only bought $1.8 billion of stocks on a net basis in the period and repurchased just $1.7 billion of its own stock. He moved more money into U.S. T-bills which also indicates he’s not looking at deploying that cash into equities in the immediate future.
Berkshire’s did also report it’s biggest ever first-quarter loss of $49.7 billion primarily resulting from $55.5 billion in unrealized losses from its stock portfolio it had to report. On an operating level, the business was profitable by about $6 billion and as the company stated in its press release: “The amount of investment gains [and] losses in any given quarter is usually meaningless and delivers figures for net earnings per share that can be extremely misleading to investors who have little or no knowledge of accounting rules.”
So let’s hear what the ‘Oracle of Omaha’ has to say later today. It may not be as entertaining without Buffett’s right-hand man c being present but insightful nevertheless. I’ll update the article post-event with further insights and you can watch the meeting (more of an interview) live at https://finance.yahoo.com/brklivestream/
Covid-19 Triggers Second Worst Sell-off
Global stock markets and in particular the S&P 500 index had once of the largest sell-offs in history as highlighted by the chart above. Only during the 1987 stock market crash ‘Black Monday’ did we have a steeper sell-off with the market falling on average 2.5% per day.
Image source: Tastytrade
Once in a Millennium
Today is February 2nd, 2020, or 02-02-2020 is a rare palindrome that occurs once in a millennium. The word palindrome comes from the Greek words “Palin,” which means “again, back” and “dromos,” meaning “running,” according to dictionary.com So palindrome is a word or phrase that runs back on itself.
I don’t watch much news other than Bloomberg and didn’t realize the significance of today’s date until my mother (of course) shared it on WhatsApp. I don’t spend much time on social media either other than to share the occasional post/share to stay engaged with my clients and partners. So when I did a quick Google, I noticed how people were using the ‘auspicious’ day as an opportunity to get married and do whatever they were holding off from doing. So the Super Bowl tonight is a little more special than usual.
But this palindrome made me reflect on what it would’ve been like on 01-01-1010, it was the year and beginning of the Julian Calendar which fixed the year-end as December 31st. It was also the year in which the Nile River in Egypt froze over and the first time apparently a Viking explorer attempted to settle in North America.
More importantly, what will the planet and our world look like on March 3rd, 3030 or 03-03-3030? Can you imagine!?
Will the earth survive the ecological damage our industrial world has subjected the earth to over the past centuries? Will we be able to stabilize or reverse climate change? Or will the earth become a wasteland like the many apocalyptic movies portray and we’ll be living on Mars?
You can let your imagination go wild by trying to imagine what the world would look like 900 years from now. We won’t be around, and neither will our children, grandchildren, or grand grandchildren for that matter.
What’s certain is that we can’t keep polluting and plundering the earth as we have and any hope of making the planet a better place in a100 years, let alone a millennium from now is for us all to make small changes starting now. Just putting your plastic bottle in a recycling bin isn’t enough. We must make responsible conscious choices about how we live, travel, invest and do business.
Bitcoin Turns 11 Today
Happy Birthday, Bitcoin!
This evening 11 years ago, on January 3rd, 2009, someone pressed a button on his (or her) keyboard and created a new currency. There was no paper, gold, or silver backing it, just bits and 31,000 lines of software code with a simple announcement on the Internet. Along with a 9-page Whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.
Bitcoin as we know it came into existence with someone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto mining the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins worth approx $350,000 today’s market value.
During the next decade, Bitcoin would skyrocket from $0.003 to almost $20,000 per one bitcoin. It was a remarkable experiment in which fortunes were made and some lost during the speculative frenzy typical of all asset bubbles. Yes, it is an asset trading hands (or digital wallets) to the tune of $27 billion on its birthday.
It was the beginning of the cryptocurrency market which now stands at almost $200 bln in total market capitalization. Insignificant in the grand scheme of the approx $90 trillion in the total market capitalization of global public capital markets. But not bad from literally point zero a decade ago.
Most importantly Bitcoin introduced the world to the Blockchain and the tremendous potential of the technology to transform industries and significantly reduce transaction costs. Without getting into the details, of how blockchain works, let me give you an example of how serious IBM is which has over 1,000 employees working on blockchain projects and has set aside hundreds of millions of R&D funding to support the development of blockchain applications.
According to research by Outlier Ventures last year, total investment in blockchain companies since 2013 hit $23.7 billion and 75% of all deal-flow focused only on early-stage rounds.
I’m excited to be introducing soon a blockchain development company that is using a unique portfolio development approach to solve some of the most pressing challenges of our world today such as climate change, clean drinking water, and financial inclusion.
I’ll share the details in a few weeks in the comments to this article so make sure to press ‘like’ to be one of the first to learn about this exciting blockchain start-up and the outstanding investment opportunity it will present to qualifying investors.
Alternatively, DM or email me suhail@financialnetwork.io and I’d be happy to add you to our launch notification list.
Would you do a Vegan Christmas?
Would you consider a meat-free holiday season? I’m all for a beef-less Wellington with a few glasses of Nosecco. UK supermarkets (and around the world) there is a growing drive to provide more vegan options to support sluggish retail sales as consumers (finally) are being healthy and environmentally conscious.
Scotland Hosts Ethical Finance Summit
Earlier this month, Scotland hosted the Ethical Finance Summit organised by the Global
Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) which organises and coordinates a series of
programmes promoting finance for positive change and bringing together leaders in
Islamic and conventional finance from around the world.
The summit aimed to “help define and shape the transition to a sustainable financial
system where finance delivers positive change”. With the Bank of England recognising
climate change as a key financial risk and growing recognition of sustainable investment
and finance, both conventional and Islamic finance practitioners have started to pay
attention to not only the economic returns but the social impact of their investment and
finance decisions.
Key partners of the summit included the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), the Scottish Government and the Bank of Scotland. Hosted in the capital of
Scotland, Edinburgh, the summit attracted over 400 finance practitioners from across
the globe discussing a range of topics including ethical investing, Islamic finance,
impact and sustainable finance.
Keynote speaker at the event, First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, who took the
summit as an opportunity to introduce the ‘Green Investment Portfolio’, a new
investment programme, estimated to be worth £3 billion over a three-year period
providing capital to local authorities and third sector organisation committed developing
projects to help the country achieve a net-zero economy by 2045.
The First Minister stating, “The Green Investment Portfolio supports our ethical finance
ambitions by matching projects which are reducing emissions with investors so we can
fully maximize their potential and promote them globally.
This could include projects that are making buildings more energy efficient, reducing
industrial emissions or even restoring peatlands.”
Scotland’s ambitious Green Investment Portfolio is aligned with the UK’s commitment
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and it was only May of this year the UK
parliament declared a climate change emergency.’ Expect green investment strategies
including green bonds and sukuk to get more attention in the coming months.
Courage, Compassion and Confidence
So proud of the Know You More team and founders Tim Mart and Chirag Mehta for winning The Scottish Herald Digital Business Awards in the Social Enterprise category. Having won the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) International Award for Coaching last year, it was great to see Know You More being recognised on home turf.
With years of effort and dedication in developing a digital platform that seamlessly delivers executive-level coaching to organisations in the simplest, most cost-effective way, Know You More is redefining how coaching should be delivered. Thank you to all our partners, coaches and of course our clients that entrust us with helping their people improve mental wellbeing, accelerate leadership development and support career transition.
Special thanks to Evelyn Walker our Strategic Board Adviser who has been a true champion of our vision to create a future in which people have the courage, compassion and confidence to be their best self and inspire others around them.
Congrats to all the finalists and winners at The Scottish Herald Digital Business Awards
PRESS RELEASE: KNOW YOU MORE WINS DIGITAL BUSINESS AWARD
Edinburgh, 29 October 2019
Know You More (“Know You More”), U.K.’s emerging leader in executive-level coaching at scale was awarded the Scottish Herald Digital Business Awards in the Charity and Social Enterprise category on Oct 23rd, 2019 at a ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland.
With a vision to create a future in which people have the courage, compassion and confidence to be their best self and inspire others around them, Know You More has been providing virtual coaching since 2016 helping people develop the essential skills and behaviours to improve leadership, mental wellness, and support career transition.
Tim Mart, CEO and Co-founder of Know You More, said: “We’ve had an opportunity to work with great organisations such as the NHS, St. Andrews University, Siemens recently to help create responsible leaders of today and tomorrow. The award is wonderful recognition for all the hard work of the team and my Co-founder Chirag Mehta over the past four years. Having won the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) 2018 International Award for Coaching last year, it’s great to get the local recognition for our efforts and a testament to the amazing community of qualified coaches we have on the platform.”
Suhail Ahmad, Executive Chairman of Know You More, said “Congratulations to all the winners and finalists of the Herald Scotland 2019 Digital Business Awards. It was an outstanding group of trailblazing businesses and organisations across Scotland. We were honoured to take home an award this year and will continue to contribute to digital excellence in Scotland and beyond.”
The awards event was attended by business leaders from across Scotland reflecting the range of organisations from social enterprise to corporates who were recognised for their digital work. The Digital Transformation Director of Newsquest Scotland, organisers of the event welcomed the attendees saying, “We social responsibility we have to society and to ourselves, to make our work inclusive and a force for good is surely of critical importance more than ever before.”
Other Digital Business Award winners across several categories included PODFather, Intelligent Mobile, DYW Glasgow, Blue2Digital clients Simon Howie and The Scottish Butcher, Enterprise Screen for The Power of Attorney campaign, After Digital for Chase Distillery, Storm ID (several awards), Neu, Barry Feam, Jenn Hood and Brian Corcoran.
Know You More is a company based in Scotland, delivering the simplest way for organisations to provide their people with executive-level coaching at scale. It’s on a mission to create thriving cultures within organisations and communities by combining the power of real human conversation with innovative technologies. With clients in the U.K. and abroad spanning both the corporate and public sector, including National Health Service (NHS), Siemens, Novartis, Ocado, St. Andrews University and many more.
Suhail Ahmad, MBA – Executive Chairman
+44 131 208 2786