Author: Melanie Kramer

Disney Rewards Loyal Actors – The Avengers’ Sliding Pay Scale

Chris Hemsworth, like Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, now gets paid in the tens of millions for his role as Thor in the “Avengers” movies.

When he started out in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Hemsworth’s first role as Thor in 2011 paid just $150,000 to the then new, but rising star.

Just one year later in 2012 Downey Jr. was getting $50 million for the “The Avengers.” Though Downey Jr.’s first role as the Iron Man in 2008 only paid $2.5 million.

Hemsworth is catching up in Disney’s pay scale, which seems to reward actors who stay in its movie franchises. His last role as Thor in “Avengers: Infinity War” paid him $15 million.

How Are Other Disney MCU Actors Paid?

Chris Evans – Captain America

Evans was paid just $1 million for “Captain America: The First Avenger” in 2011 but reached the popular $15 million pay check for “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2017.

Chadwick Boseman – Black Panther

Again, following Disney’s low first movie payment, Boseman was paid $2 million for “Black Panther” in 2017.

Brie Larson – Captain Marvel

Already an Oscar winner and the first female superhero to have her own movie in the Marvel franchise, Larsen has bucked the trend and managed to negotiate $5 million for her first role in “Captain Marvel” in 2019.

Highest Paid Actors in 2018

Including on onscreen, offscreen, and royalties earnings, Forbes reports that for 2018, Downey Jr. will be the third-highest paid actor earning a total of $81 million. Hemsworth hits fourth place earning a total of $64.5 million.

Despite not having a hit movie in a few years, George Clooney is topping this year’s list of highest paid actors earning $239 million between June 2017 and June 2018.

The world’s top 10 highest paid actors in 2018 earned $748 million between them. That top 10 list also includes Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson, Jackie Chan, and Will Smith.

Scarlett Johansson is 2018’s highest-paid female actress, earning $40 million, and highlighting a still present pay gap between male and female actors.

Maybe Larsen, as the first female to have her own movie in Disney’s MCU, will be closing that pay gap next year.

Featured image from Wikipedia.

October 12, 2018
Billionaires in China Are Struggling

Even before the Asian stock markets reacted to the US stock market plunge yesterday, the number of billionaires in China had become fewer in 2018. The richest individuals in China have also lost billions from their top line wealth this year.

Data compiled by Hurun Report says the number of “super-rich” in China has dropped below 2,000 for the first time since 2015. This list counts individuals with holdings worth the equivalent of around $209 million or more. The fall in number constitutes an 11% decline in 2017 figures.

According to the report, the number of China’s wealthiest, worth at least 2 billion yuan, fell from 2,130 in 2017 to 1,877. The new figures also include 219 new names.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, said:

“A 20% drop in the mainland stock exchanges, on the back of a slowing economy and the US-China trade war, resulted in 456 drop-offs this year, the highest since records began 20 years ago.”

In US dollars, China has 620 billionaires.

Who Are the Top Billionaires in China?

Jack Ma – Alibaba – Net Worth $39 Billion

Alibaba chairman Jack Ma is of course top of the list. At 54, he has a net worth of around $39 billion driven higher recently by the increased worth of Ant Financial.

Ma and his second-in-charge Joe Tsai, who also runs the Alibaba owned South China Morning Post, believe the US will also suffer from current trade disputes. Tsai said recently:

“We are so integrated that the pain is going to be felt all over the world. Everybody is going to feel the pain.”

Hui Ka-yan – Evergrande Group – Net Worth $36 Billion

Ka-yan has lost the equivalent of $6 billion since last year and is second on the Hurun Report list. His company, the Evergrande Group is the second-largest property developer by sales in China. In 2018, Evergrande became the world’s most valuable real estate company.

Evergrande committed $2 billion worth of investment to electric car startup Faraday Future and has already spent $800 million on the new company. Now, the deal is in a dispute over shareholder rights.

Pony Ma Huateng – Tencent – Net Worth $35 Billion

Third on the list is Huateng, CEO of web technology and Chinese social media giant Tencent. He’s currently worth $35 billion and Tencent is diversifying into entertainment, artificial intelligence, and other technologies.

Tencent is officially the world’s largest gaming and social media company, owning messenger platform Tencent QQ and WeChat. Tencent Music Entertainment has 700 million users and 120 million paying subscribers.

Tencent was worth at least $500 billion USD in 2017.

When the US Sneezes…

Stock sell-offs in the US this week also impacted Asian markets with China’s main indexes falling 5%. According to Reuters, analysts at ANZ said:

“Equity markets are locked in a sharp sell-off, with concern around how far yields will rise, warnings from the IMF about financial stability risks and continued trade tension all driving uncertainty.”

Shanghai’s SSEC drop was its most severe since early 2016 and overall was at its lowest level since 2014.

Like many, one Chinese analyst is pointing to technology stocks having oversold, UBP strategist Koon Chow said:

“I think what happened was that we were a maximum elevation of risk appetite and maximum valuation of (U.S.) large caps and tech, so when you have that situation you are always vulnerable.”

To quote CNN yesterday and many before, if the U.S sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Although, Asian markets rallied this morning showing signs of a speedy recovery.

Featured image by World Economic Forum.

October 12, 2018
HODL Crypto, Sell Shares, Buy Gold

The cryptocurrency markets are bearish, share prices are down across the globe, some experts and indicators say it’s time to buy gold again.

In fact, as an international share sell-off continues, investors may have already started to move their money to gold. Both prices and trading volume for the precious metal are showing an uptick in the early hours of today, October 11, 2018.

Investment firm Incrementum published a chartbook summary this week of their “In Gold we Trust” Report 2018. It summarizes, in charts and bullets, how monetary policy, financial infrastructure, and the performance of other markets affects and could affect the performance of the gold markets.

Incrementum’s chartbook is a must-read and useful if you are currently HODLing onto your cryptocurrency investments waiting for the light and avoiding traditional stock markets.

The Conclusion – If There’s a Recession Buy Gold

The charts show that a number of factors in recent years, including the relationship between gold and global trade, share performance, emerging country reserves, and levels of debt could be signaling that a healthy run for gold values is imminent.

Not least, the possibility of a global downturn, or even a full-on recession, means it could be time to look at stocks of the precious metal instead.

Recent IMF reports of plateauing global growth and concerns over fiscal policy uncertainty and the impact of rising interest rates support Incrementum’s suggestion that a recession might be ahead. At least it could be if governments don’t get a grip on their monetary policies. It’s not just trading issues that are causing problems, confidence in Europe and the UK is falling due to the unresolved “Brexit” scenario.

Incrementum makes it clear:

“How does the gold price perform in recessions? Short answer: Very well!”

There are two key reasons for this, investors look for safer bets in times of financial concern and crises and these investors will avoid “monetary and fiscal stimulus,” and buy gold to protect against inflation:

“Gold is the classical safe haven asset.”

Gold and Crypto Are Friends

Incrementum is also very positive about cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin as “digital gold,” and blockchain technologies which may fundamentally change global monetary order.

“Gold and cryptocurrencies are friends, not foes. In fact, a collaborative approach would play to the strengths of both.”

Underlying gold transactions with blockchain and the emergence of gold-based cryptocurrencies would work towards this collaboration.

Any investment is, of course, a risk and much analysis is needed to decide what avenue is the right choice for an individual. Traditional stock markets are taking a beating and confidence is falling in the big technology companies and their shares. Cryptocurrency markets are waiting for their next big market signals, institutional interest, and regulatory decisions.

Meanwhile, a new gold rush might be on the way…

October 11, 2018
Google is Not Giving Up Tech Domination – Unveils Pixel 3

Closely following reports of Google+ data breaches, the company has announced three new Google devices, including the Pixel 3, at its “Made by Google” event.

The technology colossus seems undeterred by recent scandals including the Google+ breach and subsequent closure of the platform, and a $5 billion fine from the European Commission.

The commission alleges that Google has abused its market domination by paying mobile manufacturers to include its applications. The giant has also been fined $2.7 billion for ranking its own shopping services higher than competitors in web search results.

Across Google’s software and search products, it has a billion users. Google’s search engine sees over 90% of all our web searches. For Android, it has over 76% of the market share.

Google’s adverts, on and off Google products, reach 90% of people who have access to the internet and parent company Alphabet is approaching a value of $1 trillion.

Google, like Facebook, is a daily part of our lives. Even with changing attitudes towards these massive corporations and how they collect and use our data, Google isn’t slowing its pace.

Cheaper New Google Devices

This week three new Google devices have been revealed and guess what – all three undercut their competitor’s prices. TechCrunch suggests that if a loss is being made on these devices, Google will be making it back through services.

Google’s Pixel 3 $799 smartphone base model undercuts that of the Apple iPhone XS at $999. Its new Home Hub smart home management system is $80 less than Amazon’s Echo Show. The Google Pixel Slate will be $599 versus the similar size iPad Pro at $799.

Pixel 3 in two sizes

The new devices are designed and priced for function, as well as impacting three key areas of our home technology stacks. Of course, they will be loaded with Google software products making it even easier for us to Google, Google, Google.

Getting more embedded in our lives seems to be an unhidden strategy for Google. Ivy Ross, Google’s Vice President and Head of Design said at the launch event:

“As technology progresses, it needs to be closer to us.”

Of the design and integration into our daily lives Ross added:

“It will eventually be invisible, the design challenge is to make that transition natural and inevitable. Our job is to figure out what it means to hold Google in your hand.”

To quote satirical Forbes writer Curtis Silver:

“Soon, the spaces in between the spaces where our hand stops and Google begins will be so minuscule we’ll need a microscope and a tiny Dennis Quaid to find them.”

Iimages from Google.

October 10, 2018
$2.2bn FNZ Deal One of the Largest in Fintech for 2018

Money is plowing into fintech and the deals are just getting bigger. UK-based FNZ, a financial technology solution provider has been acquired by ex-US Vice President Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management LLP (Generation), and a Canadian pension fund.

The deal sees private equity firms General Atlantic and HIG Capital sell their share of FNZ, at a stake of two-thirds, to Generation and Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec who teamed up to make the deal. This investment is the first by this new partnership who plan to spend around $3 billion on long-term equity investments.

Generation Investment Management was founded by Gore and an ex-Goldman Sachs partner David Blood. Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec is the second largest pension fund in Canada.

As well as capital investments, Gore is heavily involved in climate change organizations, as the chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in a joint award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007. He also sits on the board of directors for Apple and is a senior advisor to Google.

Generation is a sustainable investment management firm and has built a global research platform to integrate sustainability research into equity analysis. The investment firm seeks to identify sustainable businesses, with low-carbon outputs and which work to a healthy and safe society.

A Trillion-Dollar Market

Founded in New Zealand in 2003 and moving to Edinburgh, Scotland in 2006, FNZ provides wealth management platform technology to financial services firms including Santander, Aviva, and Barclays. Its clients currently account for around $330 billion dollars worth of global assets. The acquisition and capital injection may help FNZ to gain a larger share of what is a $30 trillion global market.

Adrian Durham, 44, founder and Group CEO of FNZ told Bloomberg the deal:

“will help us grow share in the wealth-management platform market to trillions versus hundreds of billions. You have to be a scale player.”

Both Durham and around 400 of the company’s 1,400 employees will retain shares totaling around a third of the business.

October 9, 2018
Billionaire Technology Newcomers Who Made Forbes 400 in 2018

Forbes produced last week its latest Forbes 400 rich list. Individuals needed a record $2.1 billion net worth to make the list. The average wealth of the 400 U.S billionaires is also at its highest ever, reaching $7.2 billion.

15 Americans made the list for the very first time, most of them are self-made billionaires earning fortunes in e-commerce, transport and of course, technology.

Drew Houston – Dropbox

Houston enters the list in 302nd place with a net worth of around $2.1 billion as of today. He founded file sharing service Dropbox in 2007 at the age of 24 with his Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) classmate Arash Ferdowsi.

Houston owns 25% of Dropbox, which was publicly listed this year in March. Dropbox shares gained 35% in value on their first day of trading, entering the market at a value of $28.48 according to Nasdaq, with a value of $24.07 today.

Houston is 35 and also holds 1999th place in Forbes three comma club, it’s global billionaires 2018 list. He’s quoted as having said of success:

“Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.”

Ben Chestnut – Mailchimp

Ben Chestnut / By Mike Schinkel

Chestnut founded popular email marketing platform Mailchimp in 2001 with Dan Kurzius, it wasn’t until 2007 that Mailchimp gained enough customers for the team to commit to the project full time. The pair own 50% of Mailchimp each, a company set to turn over $600 million in 2018. Chestnut is 44 and business partner Kurzius is 46, also making the Forbes 400 list in 383rd.

Chestnut is quoted by Forbes as saying:

“I want people to see that the past 17 years were just a warm-up.”

Chris Larsen – Cryptocurrency

As the first cryptocurrency “tycoon” Ripple co-founder Larsen joins the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $2.1 billion sharing 283rd place. Had the cryptocurrency markets and the Ripple token, XRP, not declined in value Larsen would have been worth much more. Forbes estimated his worth in January 2018, at $37.3 billion.

Larsen’s wealth stems from an ownership of an estimated 5.19 billion XRP tokens as well shares in the blockchain payments platform Ripple itself.

Before getting into cryptocurrency Larsen co-founded e-Loan in 1997 and a peer-to-peer lender Prosper in 2005. The self-made billionaire is 58.

Thai Lee – SHI International

One of three women to make the list this year, Lee, now 59 was born in Bangkok and grew up in South Korea before moving to the U.S. She is CEO of IT company SHI International which boasts over 17,000 customers. Lee is worth $2.3 billion, having bought SHI for less than a million in 1989.

SHI sales for 2017 were $8.5 billion. The company won a cloud solutions master agreement to offer software and IT infrastructure services to almost all U.S state and local public sector organizations. The enterprise technology giant also supplies the Defense Logistics Agency and NASA.

Forbes has previously named SHI International as the largest female-owned business in the U.S. Supportive of her employees Lee is quoted as saying:

“A dollar amount could never accurately convey the respect and admiration I have for the employees of SHI.”

Steve Conine – Online Retailer Wayfair

Conine, 46, made the Forbes 400 list at 368th. He founded online home goods retailer Wayfair with business partner Niraj Shah in 2002. Shah also made the list sharing 368th position and equivalent wealth of $2.2 billion. Wayfair, listing more than 10 million products online, saw sales rise 40% in 2017, reaching sales of $4.7 billion.

Wayfair is a consolidation of 250 websites different websites created by Conine and Shar from 2000 onwards after they spotted a niche for retailing furniture and other home items online.

When he’s not working Conine is a competitive mountain biker who competes in global bike races.

There were already many technology entrepreneurs on the Forbes 400 list, who carried over their success into 2018. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos removed Microsoft’s Bill Gates’ 24-year hold over the number one spot on the list with a massive net worth of $160 billion. Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin hold positions six and nine respectively. WhatsApp’s Jan Koum is 47th on the list and Snapchat entrepreneur Evan Spiegel is still the youngest billionaire on the list at age 28 with a net worth of $2.3 billion.

Featured image of Drew Houston from Wikipedia.

October 9, 2018
Time to Watch Borrowing Closely – Global Interest Rates Are Rising

A near 10-year period of low to almost-zero global interest rates is ending, according to experts. That means it’s time to watch credit fees and borrowing a little more closely as rate hikes filter through. For those with cash in the bank, it could also be time to search for a better rate of return.

According to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday, average global interest rates across all developed economies have risen to over one percent for the first time since 2009. This follows the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate rise last week.

It’s the USA that’s leading the charge, where interest rates currently sit at 2.25 percent after the latest increase. Interest rates have also risen in Indonesia, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. The increases across these five countries in one week is the most in any week since 2001. Conversely, rates are still hovering at near-zero in the rest of Europe and Japan.

Bloomberg’s conclusion is drawn from JPMorgan and Natwest Markets’ global economy gauges and comes nearly 10 years after the global recession triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc.

The Impact of Rising Global Interest Rates

For individuals, rising global interest rates mean the cost of lending, mortgages, credit cards, overdrafts, and other borrowings could rise. That means it could be time to watch these financial products and their rates closely. Shop around for the best rates, and consider extra repayments.

For the US, an analysis by WalletHub in a consumer impact report by CNBC estimates that credit card users will pay an extra $1.6 billion in charges in 2018, based on even a 0.25 percent interest rate increase.

“The best thing that cardholders can do is make the rate hike a moot point by paying the balance in full every month so all of these rate hikes are a non-issue,” said Matt Schulz, an analyst at CompareCards.

Longer-term lending like adjustable-rate mortgages will see an impact too. Although, this could be delayed if interest rates on these products are calculated annually.

USA Today and Bankrate.com predicted that monthly repayments on a $200,000 mortgage could increase from $84 to $112 with four quarter-point hikes from the US Federal Reserve. On this basis, a $400,000 mortgage and four quarter-point increases, would see borrowers paying an extra $672 in interest annually.

To give you some context, in the past couple of years, there has been a total of eight quarter-point increases in the US.

Interest rates on savings products could also rise if these rate increases are positively passed on by banks. This doesn’t always happen and can happen more slowly. The impact on borrowers is usually felt much more quickly.

However, savers could see products with better rates appear on the market. For them, it could be time to shop around for a better return on their investments.

Healthy Economies?

Rising global interest rates are not necessarily a bad thing, as they can be a sign of a healthy economy. Subsequent or preceding rising inflation rates can actually lead to pay increases and better savings rates.

The US economy is relatively healthy and growing but some believe this cannot last. Jesse Colombo, writing for Forbes, says that the US Federal Reserve interest rate hikes will begin to impact global economies, particularly those with high levels of US dollar debt. In the US itself, corporate debt is at an all-time high and real estate prices have boomed on recent low mortgage rates.

Though the news is full of warnings over interest rate hikes, tariffs, and oil prices, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on September 30, 2018, confirmed that global economic growth is still at its highest since 2011. Unemployment is falling in most countries and the number of people living in extreme poverty is at a record low.

The IMF does, however, recognize that there are signs of change or slowdown, but suggests that while the going is good, a little positive direction or steering could prevent any global economic decline.

Featured image from Shutterstock

October 5, 2018