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What is the Earth Sinking About?

Market Scorecard



Happy Friday the 13th! The uphill battle for Teresa May that is Brexit, just got steeper (Trump Says May's Brexit Plan Could 'Kill' Chances for U.S.-U.K. Trade Deal). One of the main selling points for Brexit was the UK being able to better negotiate trade deals by not having EU restrictions. I'm seeing calls from UK politicians for May to cancel her meeting today with Trump.

Yesterday the JSE All-share closed down 0.67%, the S&P 500 closed up 0.87%, and the Nasdaq closed up 1.39%.



Our 10c Worth



Two things, from Paul

This 2013 article from the National Geographic shows how the different continents would be affected by the melting of all the ice on land, mostly in Antarctica, due to possible global warming trends. In that case, the sea level would rise by about 65 metres.

Africa would be the least badly hit, although Table Mountain would be cut off from the Western Cape and Cairo would disappear. The Netherlands would be lost, and so would the state of Florida in the USA. The Amazon basin would get much, much larger. Australia comes off badly: it would gain a new inland sea-but it would lose much of the narrow coastal strip where four out of five Australians now live.

For the record, I don't think that it's going to come to this. In a few more decades fossil fuel use will tail off. Carbon dioxide munching organisms are under development, etc.

More maps here.



Not everyone in England wept when their team' crashed out of the World Cup. Bookmakers would have silently cheered their defeat to Croatia because they averted a multi-million pound payout.

Before the tournament, companies such as Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill were offering odds of 16-1 on England lifting the trophy. A rush of patriotic bets and the team's advance had left them facing significant liabilities.

Shares of Paddy Power Betfair gained as much as 3.4 percent and William Hill rose 1.7 percent, on the morning after the loss. Sad!






Byron's Beats

As investors in Netflix, it has now become important to pay attention to the Emmys. I am sure many of you already pay attention to the awards, as it is quite fun to watch, but now it has investment significance.

This Daily Maverick piece titled Game of Thrones storms back into Emmy's race with 22 nominations does a good job at summarising who's been nominated for what.



For the first time ever, Netflix ended HBO's 17 year winning streak for the most overall nominations. Netflix came through with 112, HBO received 108 and NBC got 78.

It certainly seems like Netflix's multi-billion dollar strategy at content creation is reaping the rewards/awards.






Michael's Musings

With trade wars being at the forefront of most investor's minds, the topic of wealth inequality hasn't had as much attention this year. I came across this interesting breakdown of the top earners in South Africa, for 2014. Over the last 4-years though, I have no doubt that these figures have changed significantly. Will they have more rich people or less today? I'm not sure. Here is the article (Spotlight on Top Earners in South Africa).

    "In 2014, there were 1048 individuals that earned more than R10 million per annum. What's interesting about this figure is that in 2011, South Africa only had 482 people who earned more than R10 million. So, the data suggests that in a period of three years, the number of people earning above R10 million more than doubled.

    The median income amongst high earners is R14 million rand per annum. At the very top end, the highest taxable income was R100 million in 2011, whilst in 2014, it jumped to R150 million."


It is probably worth noting that many people who earn millions, also have companies and trust structures to keep their wealth. The result is that the SARS figures quoted above, are much lower than the actual number of people who earn above R10 million a year.








Bright's Banter

Martin Tripp, a former Tesla employee who left a month ago filed a complaint with the SEC accusing Tesla of misleading investors and putting customers at risk. The background story first, Tripp was being sued $1 million for allegedly hacking Tesla's confidential information and then distributing the information.

Tripp's complaint to the SEC continues to say that the revolutionary electric-car maker was inflating weekly production numbers for the Model 3 by as much as 44%. So how would a company go about inflating these numbers you ask? Well Tripp says that Tesla installed punctured batteries which are a fire hazard, and systematically using waste and scrap material to meet the weekly production goal.

The second bit is not news, this is common manufacture practice. A good example is in the making of chocolate. Chocolate manufacturers are known for using chocolate waste from the production process to make more good chocolate. This is absolutely fine as long as the waste is less than the predetermined percentage allowed by the food safety regulator. The problem arises when you cross that threshold, but we digress.

Tesla basically said that they received news that Tripp was going to turn violent against the company which of course naturally Tripp denied. The former district attorney in Manhattan and assistant New York state attorney general Stuart Meissner is siding with Tripp saying that Tesla's lawsuit against Tripp was just a smear campaign to defame and silence him.

I know this reads like fan fiction but stay tuned for our next episode of Tripp vs Tesla!




Linkfest, Lap it Up


The internet is disrupting most businesses, including the the drug trade - Heroin may be Mozambique's second largest export- and it's being disrupted by WhatsApp.

The Tour de France is in full swing, all the hours of training for the cycling season were logged during December and January though - Why Tour de France champion Chris Froome chooses Johannesburg as a training venue.



With the FIFA World Cup final this weekend, here is how TV viewership compares to that of the Super Bowl in the US - The Biggest Game on Earth?.

Infographic: The Biggest Game on Earth? | Statista You will find more infographics at Statista




Vestact in the Media


This week on Blunders: Jihadist group Al-Shabaab outlaws plastic shopping packets; airline fails; and thieving ex-heads of state on the hop - Blunders : Episode 109





Signing off


Asian markets look set to have their first up week in over a month. Our market is green this morning too. This afternoon Wells Fargo and JP Morgan give us an idea how the US economy has faired over the last 3-months; most analysts are expecting strong growth in profits from US companies.

Sent to you by Team Vestact.


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