Month: November 2021

All of the conversation earlier this year about inflation being transitory is well and truly over. More and more economists are now realising that inflation is here to stay - the question is just how much and for how long.

While our federal government drags their feet on climate policy and the state governments and the business community are forced to take the lead, we're seeing some exciting projects progress. The opportunity for Australia to be a net exporter of green, renewable energy is within reach if some of these projects can be realised.

Businesses are returning to the office, but around the world bosses are questioning if they need to return to the skies. Zoom meetings were an effective substitute while we were locked down, but many companies have adapted and now find them more efficient than the old-world, travel and meet in person alternative

Austin-based construction tech company ICON is 3D-printing homes in Texas. The homes, measuring between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet, took between five and seven days of printing time and are selling for around $450k (which is the average house price in Austin, Texas).

The last 18 months has been one of the best runs in stock market history, with the MSCI All-World index nearly doubling since the COVID-lows of March 2020. This has largely been driven by the unbelievable run in US large-cap stocks. But it isn't just stocks that have done well, everything from cryptocurrencies to property have seen unbelievable runs of late.

“Sam Got is pure 21st-century innovation. Its success comes down to technological innovation, relentless focus on customer experience, and mastery of globalised logistics.” That sentence could be written about Amazon or some of the other eCommerce giants that have emerged in the past two decades.

The last few years there has been a growing tension between two of the biggest names in technology - Apple’s Tim Cook and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. It started with veiled criticism around Facebook’s data privacy and fake news. Then Apple’s product changes - in particular the iOS 13 privacy and security features - caused a stir amongst all the social media platforms.

Two days before Mark Zuckerberg announced the Facebook name change, he sat down with Ben Thompson of Stratechery. There has been a lot written about Facebook's name change but we thought this was particularly interesting to hear the inside view of the metaverse from Zuckerberg himself. This is a transcript of that interview.

Coinbase is a phenomenal story of the past decade. Started in 2012 to enable people to store, send and receive Bitcoin (remember, Bitcoin was only created in 2009), it has grown to be the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US (note, not in the world. Binance holds that distinction).

Lithium. It is on the forefront of every Australian investors mind. It brings together the oldest love of Australian retail investors - mining speccies - with the latest trend in the retail investor community - ESG and sustainability. The promise and potential of lithium-ion batteries is huge.

The international space station has been orbiting the earth for over 20 years. A symbol of US-Russian cooperation post-Cold War, the space station is starting to look a little worse for wear after decades in the harsh environment of space. A general consensus is that the ISS will be able to keep flying until 2028 or 2030. The question becomes - what next?

In September 2020, the FBI arrived at the house of a New York City police officer. They were arresting the officer, a Tibetan asylum-seeker who had arrived in the US at 17 years old, on charges of spying for the Chinese community party. He may have been spying, but he wasn’t a great spy

Last week was a big one for Tesla. It became just the 6th American company to reach the $1 trillion market cap and did it with far less revenue than any of the 5 that have come before it. The market expects big things from Tesla. In this research report released last week, Morgan Stanley upped their price target from $900 to $1,200 per share (when released shares were around ~$1,000) and made the case that this price is based on a conservative case (in particular, half the company’s growth target, constrained growth in China and no improvements in autonomous driving).

The promise of artificial intelligence is vast and ambitious, but this recent project even caught us by surprise. A multidisciplinary team of scientists from around the world are attempting to interpret sperm whale clicks and talk back to them.

There is plenty to talk about with Facebook (or should we say Meta) recently. Whistleblowers, court cases, a rebrand and a push into exciting frontiers of technology. Yet, the most important story about Facebook may not be getting much attention.