You would think following the implosion of the financial sector in the late 2000s, that the lessons of sub-prime lending by banks would have left a great enough imprint to halt such practices. Banks offered mortgages to unqualified customers and bundled those mortgages for sale as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs. As we know, that blew up in their faces. Yet it is still happening, according to Frank Partnoy in The Atlantic. Partnoy, who worked in...
The closure of pubs across the world has made its way up the alcoholic beverage production chain to workers at Heineken, the world's second largest brewer. The Amsterdam-based company has announced that it will downsize by about 10% or almost 8,000 jobs. Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink said that global vaccination is the only way customers will drink enough beer for the company to get back to normal production.
From <https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55984400>
Volkswagen AG, based in Hamburg, Germany is testing the waters, or rather, testing the atmosphere, of autonomous flying taxis in China. VW said it is interested in the potential of adapting autonomous driving technology to aerial vehicles and that the Chinese market would be ripe for such a product and service. As Reuters points out, VW believes the concept is worth pursuing.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-china-autonomous/volkswagen-explores-flying-cars-in-china-idUSKBN2A91QG
There's much discussion surrounding uber-entrepreneur Elon Musk's startling US$1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin on behalf of Tesla Inc. The company also announced that consumers soon will be able to pay for its electric vehicles using cryptocurrency. Musk's massive influence has helped drive up cryptocurrency value, but not everyone is on board with the Tesla plunge as Fortune Magazine points out:
https://fortune.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-bitcoin-elon-musk-tsla-btc/
Consumer trend firm "Trendwatching" says that "carbon neutrality" and "sustainable" are out. "Regenerative" and "terrapy" are now the terms preferred by consumers to refer to efforts to conserve and rehabilitate our planet. Trendwatching provides updates on, what else, industry and consumer trends. In its latest update, Trendwatching reports that major companies such as General Mills and multinational food products company Danone have turned their focus to revitalizing soil through regenerative practices.
https://info.trendwatching.com/make-shift/issue-5?utm_campaign=2021%3A%20MS%20Terrapy&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=110277924&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8_YVo5aYc3i-PWq4d-6hPUNWvMnOceSdkwri_whL4UN_S5pN8UEBO5khZlkEGUawlc0c_ByrryPGBYaOtbN1_f5u4wMQ&utm_content=110277924&utm_source=hs_email
The pandemic fueled by the COVID-19 virus has disrupted economies and lives. It's hard to imagine that anything positive could emerge from such a crisis, but pharmaceutical researchers believe the urgency to develop vaccines to combat the virus could result in major advancements towards the fight against many other threatening diseases. Here's an optimistic look from MIT's Technology Review:
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/05/1017366/messenger-rna-vaccines-covid-hiv/
Is it safe to say most of us avoid talking about the topic of funerals? Makes one kind of uncomfortable, right? Considering that every single one of us will experience funeral arrangements in some way or another, maybe it should be a topic of conversation. For instance, why does it cost so much money to put a hole in the ground? Tune into this relevant discussion from Slate about funeral practices that could open...
More than 2 million guns were purchased by Americans last month, representing an 80% increase over January 2020, reports the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/03/gun-sales-january-background-checks/
In Canada, meanwhile, sales of snow shovels and windshield scrapers, and apologies are soaring.
Clubhouse, Silicon Valley’s invitation-only audio chat room, is gaining popularity among Chinese users, reports Bloomberg News's Yueqi Yang, adding these highlights:
• The hashtag “Clubhouse Invite Code” was trending on Weibo this week.
• In the U.S., Clubhouse broke into the Top 30 of most downloaded apps among iPhone users, according to SensorTower, after Elon Musk made an appearance in a chat room last Sunday.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also joined Clubhouse and chatted about the company’s AR...
While human couples forced to spend more time together are splitting faster than atoms in a nuclear reaction, tech corporations merged at a brisk rate in 2020. Omri Wallach of Visual Capitalist, using data compiled by Computerworld (https://www.computerworld.com/article/3513439/biggest-technology-acquisitions-of-2020.html), showcases the largest mergers and acquisitions in the technology space over the last year (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-biggest-tech-mergers-and-acquisitions-of-2020/).
