Exchange Invest Weekend Edition 2716: Barbie’s Parental Feud
Barbie’s parental feud, Taylor Swift’s Bad Press, Titan’s inevitable demise, China’s confused economics, Milan Kundera shaped a generation.
Exchange Invest is a unique information resource combining the day’s stories in a newsletter for investors in exchanges/financial markets infrastructure.
Exchange Invest was founded by former exchange CEO and author of the first bestselling book of fintech (“Capital Market Revolution!” FT 1999) Patrick L Young. Monday through Friday our daily paid subscriber email discusses the business of bourses of all kinds across the world.
This weekly edition is a magazine of broader macro topics as well as including our free weekly podcast which reviews the highlights of the week in the world’s market structure.
On this day in 2013, Portuguese financial markets cheered the decision to allow the fragile coalition government to remain in charge, eliminating for now the prospect of snap elections and more political uncertainty.
IN BIGWORLD
From Exchange Invest 2715: Friday, July 21st:
Spoiler alert, some of our Philippine office staff have already enjoyed the Barbie movie as it was released in Manila Wednesday but the worldwide release is today. If you haven’t already prepared yourself, expect the weekend to have a pink hue, particularly if you are parenting little girls.
The mega Barbie marketing effort around the movie’s launch means I can offer my favourite joke as an icebreaker ahead of Barbie mania:
A man goes into a shop, and spends quite some time looking at the vast array of Barbie toys.
An assistant notices his intense study of the shelves and asks if she can help.
“Oh I would like to buy my daughter a Barbie doll for her birthday,” says the man.
“What a wonderful idea,” says the shop assistant and proceeds to recite a hugely lengthy list of possibilities (curtailed for space in the newsletter to) …Barbie astronaut, $49.99, Barbie lawyer $49.99, Barbie stockbroker $49.99, Barbie photographer $49.99, Barbie catwalk model $49.99, Barbie Senator $49.99 and Barbie divorcee $999.99.”
“Okay,” says the man a little puzzled, “so how come the prices are…” (you can recite the list again if you have sufficient time and / or love drawing jokes out)” …Barbie architect $49.99, Barbie debutante, Barbie engineer $49.99, Barbie Mermaid $49.99, Barbie policewoman $49.99, Barbie soldier $49.99, Barbie naval officer $49.99, President Barbie $49.99, CEO Barbie $49.99, Barbie Surgeon $49.99… and yet Barbie divorcee is $999.99?”
“Oh, that’s simple” says the shop assistant in a flash.
“Barbie divorcee comes with Ken’s boat, Ken’s car, Ken’s house, Ken’s helicopter, Ken’s beach hut, Ken’s ski chalet…
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM
NEXT WEEK TUESDAY: Season 20: Episode 01
IPO-VID Livestream 114
Guest: Susan Gidel
Tuesday, July 25th: 1800 UK, 1900 CET, 1400 EST
“Astrology, the Markets, and You”
Susan Abbott Gidel specializes in financial astrological market research honed from 35 years in the commodity futures business as a journalist and brokerage firm marketing executive.
Based in Chicago, she is a regular on the conference circuit for professional astrologers and in 2018, Susan published “Trading In Sync With Commodities — Introducing Astrology To Your Technical Toolbox.” Her first book, published in 2000, was about stock indexes.
Currently, Susan publishes a newsletter, “Red Letter Trading Days,” alerting traders & investors to important astrological energy. She also writes the weekly “Finstrology” column at Astrology.com.
Watch the stream on:
NOW ONLINE! Season 19: Episode 06
IPO-VID Livestream 113
Guest: Hamish McRae
Tuesday, July 18th: 1800 UK, 1900 CET, 1400 EST
“The World in 2050”
Acclaimed author, former Euromoney Editor, and adjunct professor at Trinity College Dublin, Hamish McRae is one of Europe’s foremost speakers on global future trends in economics, technology, business and society.
He is a columnist for the i newspaper and the Mail on Sunday. His books include “The World in 2020: Power, Culture and Prosperity.” and its sequel “The World in 2050: How To Think About The Future.” Hamish’s other books include “Capital City — London as a Financial Centre,” co-authored with Frances Cairncross.
Watch the stream on:
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM PODCAST
In IPO-VID Episode 107: Patrick L Young was joined by AFM’s leaders, President Paul Constantinou and Chairman, Patrick J. Kenny.
Let’s listen as they review the history of the emerging exchange markets association AFM and look to the future of exchanges and the association.
Now available from multiple different podcast sources including:
Anchor Spotify Google Podcasts Apple Podcast
EI WEEKLY PODCAST
Nigerian Derivatives Go Live
AIX Makes A Great Leap Forward
ASIC CHESS Intervention
And there’s a Big GIFT Horse Looking From India To The Rest Of The World
The Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast 203
VICTORY OR DEATH
20 years on from the first fintech bestseller “Capital Market Revolution!”… “Victory Or Death” is a must read book for anyone interested in the intersection of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and FinTech as part of the whole future of finance.
FINANCE BOOK OF THE WEEK
In response to reader’s queries, we have added a book of the week column to the EI weekend edition — You can sign up for EI Weekend for free at ExchangeInvest.com incidentally.
We’re choosing interesting books pertaining to exchanges and markets, investment et al.
This week’s book was written by our IPO-VID guest 084: Alessandro Hatami:
“Reinventing Banking and Finance: Frameworks to Navigate Global Fintech Innovation” provides a thorough overview of the global fintech ecosystem and the drivers behind innovation in technologies, business models and distribution channels. Examples of key institutions and interviews with innovators and experts shine a light on key financial innovation hubs across the world, covering genuine innovations in AI, machine learning, blockchain and digital identity.
Get the book here.
Suggestions welcome if you would like to nominate a book for us to cover!
Our next Book of the week will be unveiled Saturday in the EI Weekend Edition.
& don’t forget if you want all the news on the bourse business sent daily to your Inbox subscribe to Exchange Invest — via Exchange Invest.com — it’s only $349 per annum to join “The Exchange of Information.”
PARISH NOTES
From Exchange Invest 2711:
The Lina Khan Dilemma
Prompted by various articles, the most succinct of these being a few deft Spectator World paragraphs (Lina Khan’s Very Bad Week), brings the FTC, that once relatively somnolent antitrust regulator which as part of Biden’s back to feudalism / Marxism / the stone age (delete as appropriate) approach to commerce has been partly fuelled by the FTC’s sudden activist stance.
True Microsoft buying Activision (now a raging certainty with Call of Duty staying on Playstation for the next decade) is not directly in the parish but one deal concerning ICE and Black Knight has been subject to some fairly aggressive action from FTC. Could the FTC now be in full retreat mode given its issues elsewhere, particularly during the past week? That has clear ramifications for the parish and a deal which ICE always has been clear was in its belief a reasonable one…and ICE even made extra accommodation for FTC, only for FTC to come down hard on a deal which impacts digital / technological mortgage provision which from how I understand it, remains a relatively tiny part of the overall mortgage business in the US.
Stay tuned, the FTC is on the retreat and that could mean great news for ICE.*
*NB ICE then further placed pressure on FTC by arranging an additional divestment to — again — Constellation software.
BITCARNAGE
Schroedinger’s Crypto
Money Stuff: Ripple Is A Security And It Isn’t runs the Matt Levine headline for an extra piece he published late Friday. One of the most reliable indicators in finance BTW is things almost invariably happen when Mr Levine is not scheduled to work… His explanation is excellent as he considers what I believe is the issue of Schroedinger’s crypto — last week’s Ripple ruling appears to suggest inside the box the crypto cat is at once a security and also not… I think that is unlikely to survive further due process or at least rules will be tightened. In that respect, I don’t think the crypto kiddies have much hope that their elation of last week will be long-lived.
Meanwhile — “4:FUD!” Binance have continued to insist they are adding to their payroll whereas the Journal seeks to differ: Binance Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees — WSJ
CZ tweeted back with a brutal “4:FUD!”
“As we continuously strive to increase talent density, there are involuntary terminations. This happens in every company. The numbers reported by media are all way off. 4 FUD.
On the bright side, they just can’t resist talking about us.
We are still hiring.”
The problem is I fear only the true believers of the Binance / CZ & perhaps “broader” crypto cult believe all the “4:FUD!” talk.
One area where there can be no argument that Binance has made a hire is for their top legal position:
Eleanor Hughes Appointed As Binance’s General Counsel
Binance
…Previous General Counsel Hong Ng departed in the wave which was (full “4:FUD!” entirely coincidentally reported at the same time a week or so ago).
If you enjoyed this excerpt you may be interested to know that you can read Bitcarnage every day in Exchange Invest.
Alternatively, if you want to follow Bitcarnage — the daily update on happenings in the world of crypto and digital assets, then you can find Bitcarnage as a standalone on Substack.
MACRO THOUGHTS
Xi’s Iron Fist Is Hurting China’s Economy
The Spectator
“Mao Zedong had a big thing about contradictions. They were the basis of life, driving it forward, the old despot once mused. But even he might have struggled to understand today’s Communist party — which is desperately trying to drum up foreign investment while simultaneously hounding foreign companies out of the country…
There’s long been a view in Beijing that foreign companies would put up with almost anything for a slice of the China market, but calculations are changing, and many are now concluding that Xi’s China is simply not worth the ordeal.”
OF INTEREST
As always, a review of interesting reading to provoke thoughts and consideration… Not sure we agree with much of it….but it’s thought-provoking!
Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now’ Vinyl ‘Incorrectly Pressed,’ Plays Electro Mix Instead
Variety
The Titan Submersible Implosion Was “An Accident Waiting to Happen”
The New Yorker
“Another “mission specialist” wrote in a blog post that, a month before the implosion, Rush had confessed that he’d “gotten the carbon fiber used to make the Titan at a big discount from Boeing because it was past its shelf-life for use in airplanes.””
Battle To Be The Real Barbie: Toy Boss’ Daughter vs Sex-Crazed Genius’ Ideal Woman
NY Post
The Barbie Doll’s Not-For-Kids Origins
Time
PLY: With a 4 star review even from the Daily Telegraph, Barbiemania grips the cinema and I note Barbara Handler has a cameo role in the movie. PLY is currently about 400 miles from the nearest cinema so cannot directly review the film but he expects a suffusion of pink in a future trans Atlantic flight during Q3/Q4.
Milan Kundera And The Tragedy Of Central Europe
Spiked
How The Unbearable Lightness Of Being Enthralled A Generation
The Spectator
To read him [Milan Kundera] as a teenager was in many ways to be wrenched into adulthood and realise there were other countries, other ways of seeing — in fact, quite different moral systems — beyond your own. So many of us fell under his spell and have never quite emerged from it.
LAST WORD
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Catch up on Monday for Exchange Invest 2717…
The future continues in the water cooler of the bourse business…
- Patrick
