Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice
A Wealth of Common Sense – Too Big To Be Simple? – Ben Carlson 6/19
- “…There is no such thing as too big to be simple.”
- “Problems arise when ultra-wealthy people assume the normal rules don’t apply to them.”
A Wealth of Common Sense – Is The Handmaid’s Tale Fast Approaching – Ben Carlson 6/5
Economist – In praise of ranked-choice voting 6/14
- “A simple reform might fix America’s dysfunctional politics.”
Economist – China has made progress in tackling financial risks – Leaders 6/16
FT – Beauty contest to host new Amazon base reveals ugly truths – Edward Luce 6/5
- “Competition for ‘HQ2’ shows how hard it is to ensure city development benefits the poor.”
FT – How millennials became the world’s most powerful consumers – John Gapper 6/5
- “They are the biggest global generation – and their choices are upending business from the US to China.”
Markets / Economy
WSJ – Food Companies Can’t Figure Out What Americans Want to Eat – Aaron Back 6/5
WSJ – The Other Yield Curve Investors Should Watch as Trouble Mounts – Richard Barley 6/19
Real Estate
Energy
Economist – Global Coal Consumption 6/14
Health / Medicine
FT – Gaming disorder joins the WHO panoply of diseases – Anjana Ahuja 6/19
- “Official recognition of social media addiction could well be next in line.”
Britain
FT – ‘Hellish’: UK motorists hit by biggest petrol price rise in 18 years – Camilla Hodgson 6/5
- “Petrol prices jumped at the fastest pace in 18 years in May, with an average increase of 6p per liter from the previous month, according to roadside assistance and insurance company RAC.”
- “Unleaded petrol rose from 123.43p to 129.41p ($6.46 per gallon) over the month, taking the cost of filling up a 55-litre (14.53 gallon) family car to £71.18 ($93.79), an increase of £3.29 in just one month, according to RAC Fuel Watch data.”
- “Price rises were driven by a jump in oil prices combined with the weakening of the pound against the dollar, said RAC.”
China
FT – China’s debt collectors focus in on $200bn P2P debt pile – Don Weinland 6/4
- “Debt collectors in China are harnessing new technologies such as artificial intelligence in a bid to collect on an estimated Rmb1.3tn ($200bn) debt bubble that has formed in the country’s peer-to-peer lending industry.”
- “An estimated Rmb1.3tn in outstanding P2P debt as of May, according to online lending intelligence firm Wdzj.com, and a rising number of defaults have opened the door to a wave of start-ups using new technologies to try to recover tardy loans.”
- “’People’s usage of P2P debt is very high but the government only monitors the banking system closely,’ said Cherry Sheng, chief executive of Shanghai-based debt collection group Ziyitong and a former manager at Citigroup and ANZ Bank. ‘This has become an opportunity for start-ups with advanced technology to move into this market.’”
- “Ziyitong, which has sought to recover Rmb150bn since it was set up in 2016, recently launched an AI platform to help recover delinquent loans for some 600 debt collection agencies, and more than 200 lenders including Alibaba Group and Postal Savings Bank of China, Ms. Sheng said.”
- “The system scrapes the internet for information on borrowers and their friends, then contacts the borrower via phone using a dialogue robot. The conversations are recorded and analyzed by an algorithm that then determines the phrasing with the highest likelihood of pressuring the person to pay back the loan. The system also calls friends of the borrower and asks them to relay the urgency of making payments.”
- “In May the AI system had a recovery rate of 41% for large clients on loans delinquent for up to one week, according to Ms. Sheng, compared with a rate of as low as 20% via traditional debt collection methods for similar loans. Ziyitong plans to expand the system to loans that have been unpaid for longer periods of time.”
- “Yigou, another debt collection start-up, has launched a mobile phone application that allows collection agents to search thousands of individual debt records and choose cases, streamlining connections between lenders and collectors. The company can also provide geo-locational data on some borrowers to help the agents track them down.”
WSJ – China Tech Giants’ Costly Wars to Go Cashless – Stella Yifan Xie 6/14
Europe
WSJ – The Force Behind Europe’s Populist Tide: Frustrated Young Adults – Eric Sylvers 6/17
