Grid

The main discussions on the blog this week include … Fires to the left of me, floods to the right and here I am, stuck in the monsoon with you I heard a statistic on the BBC that natural disasters due to weather are costing the insurance industry seven times more today than in the…

I heard a statistic on the BBC that natural disasters due to weather are costing the insurance industry seven times more today than in the 1970s. Is that because people insure against such issues more today? Partly, but it’s also because there are more natural weather disasters happening. For example, take this chart from Statista: Source:…

A while ago, I spotted that Watford was sponsored by Bitcoin. They must have made a mint out of that and will be buying up Harry Kane soon, if he’s not already gone somewhere else. Nevertheless, I wanted their shirt. In fifty years, who knows what a football team shirt, sponsored by Bitcoin, would fetch…

I’ve been close to Peter Vander Auwera for many years, thanks to Innotribe. He retired a few years ago on bitcoin – I wonder how many times I will use that line? – and became an artist. Great guy. But he’s still tracking me and others in the Finverse and posted this yesterday. It’s so…

Some years ago, July 2015 to be exact, I interviewed Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of Klarna. Niklas left the company shortly after but is still invested and, interestingly, is investing in other unicorns like Mollie. Not bad for a guy who was flipping burgers for a living in his 20s (he’s now 39). I quote from that…

I have a few friends who are climate deniers. That’s fine, they are entitled to their views, but I cannot accept that view. There’s too much science that shows the world is changing. Their argument – those who believe this is not a climate emergency – is that it’s just Earth going through its’ regular…

The main blog discussions this week include … 15% of the world’s population has a disability 15% of the world’s population has a disability. According to the Return on Disability Group, this consumer population is bigger than China and accounts for $1.9 trillion in disposable income. That makes me wonder why banks and companies don’t…

I found the answer to What about maybe? and why HSBC, NatWest, Monzo and more are freezing customer accounts, closing them down and annoying customers left, right and centre. Money. Rather, it’s the money they’ll have to pay if the regulator catches them breaking the rules. From The Times: Global fines for failures related to money laundering…

I blogged the other day about the Finverse and $100 billion invested in FinTech firms in the first half of 2021. Wow! It made me think that I often talk about the fact that there are 1,000’s of FinTech start-ups launching around the world. My guess today is that there are over 15,000. Who knows? There…

Thing is, when it comes to inclusion, what financial products would you create for people who are blind, deaf, have lost limbs and more? I’ve seen people debating this point over the years, but I haven’t seen much done. Talking ATMs with brail numbers is about it. Thing is, as mentioned yesterday, this is a huge market…