ML - The way the world works - analyzing how things work

How Does A Currency Swap Between The Yuan And Ruble Stablize Russia

The main reason behind this is that many investors prefer to invest in "safe" businesses They believe that safer investments are less risky and give high returns as compared to growth businesses This assumption is incorrect and it is supported by the performance of growth-oriented companies during the financial crisis Growth companies are safer than other businesses because they have solid management, strong brands, and loyal customers Therefore, in a recession, customers may not increase their spending, but they will still buy from a company which has a great reputation They may spend less, but the company still earns higher profits It is also interesting to note that growth companies outperform other businesses in bull markets This is because, as the market goes up, growth companies continue to grow at a steady pace, and their stock prices rise too On the other hand, the stock prices of stable businesses may rise but their growth rate may slow down THE PERFORMANCE OF GROWTH COMPANIES DURING THE FINANCIAL CRISIS During the financial crisis, growth companies outperformed the broader market by a wide margin The S&P 500, which had given an average return of 4 1% during the previous five years, had a negative return of 37 9% during the financial crisis The Russell 1000 Growth Index, which had given a return of 12 8% per year during the previous five years, managed to give a positive return of 11 3% during the crisis The main reason behind this performance was that growth companies had stronger fundamentals than stable businesses They had sound management, great brands and loyal customers Therefore, even in a recession, the demand for their products remained steady As a result, their stock prices rose In fact, the average return of the Russell 1000 Growth Index during the financial crisis was more than double the return of the S&P 500 Although growth stocks had outperformed the broader market, the performance of individual growth companies varied widely The problem with growth companies is that some of them do not have a clear "road map" to growth They may have a good product, but they do not have a clear strategy to cash in on the product This was the case with Palm, which had a great product, but it was not able to capitalize on it and its stock price fell by more than 75%

What can we learn from 2001 a space odyssey

The answer is that small companies tend to be more vulnerable to rising costs, and because of the way they are structured, they don’t have the wherewithal to pass the increase along to their customers

Today, scientists have learned how to create hydrogen that is safe to store and transport They have also developed ways to produce it that are economically competitive with gasoline Today, hydrogen is being used as a fuel on a small scale There are a few hydrogen-powered vehicles on the road, and some hydrogen-powered buses are being used in Scandinavia

Temperature is a measure of the trade-off between information and energy. Temperature is energy per bit. Atoms at high temperature require more energy to register a bit of information, and atoms at a low temperature require less energy to register a bit.

Finally, some projects are so valuable that the firm cannot afford to lose them It is worth almost any cost to ensure delivery Such projects are called must-win projects In fact, the firm may need more than one such project to ensure its survival

Thoughts

Companies have technical debt and they ignore it until it hurts. When it hurts call Matt at https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewblackburn/

Kazakhstan: "Kazakhstan had become a gigantic farmland, a desert that had bloomed into vast arable tracts." It had become 40 percent Russian, 2/3 of water provided from the Aral Sea, heavy salization, high rates of birth defects and infant mortality, and thirty mile coast line. "The Russians had thought they could use the water to turn the area into a cotton plantation. But they had treated the land the way they treated the oil fields we had passed: They stripped it and moved on." In communism you can ruin a resource without anyone saying halt. On the other hand, China in the seventies admitted its ways were not working and deregulated agriculture to teh peasants, allowing farmers to lease land for a very long time, and in some place buy it; the government allows the farmers to sell crops that they could sell for a profit on the world market; the farmers went wild; every field was planted and cultivated with items being reused and no waste; the farmers didn't strip the land; and China became an agricultural exporting country.