The Purse

Welcome to our #200 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, a spotlight a short extract from the interview with Maya Ghosn on The Purse Podcast.

Maya is a Lebanese/Brazilian investor and advisor to purpose-driven organisations with a focus on mental health and sexual health.

We talk about (including) female angel investors, Maya's investment thesis, how Maya invests in startups, how to level the playing field for female founders and how do we encourage more women to invest?

Listen to the full interview here.

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Female angel investors and how can more women invest?

We talk to Maya Ghosn on The Purse Podcast about female angel investors, levelling the playing field for female founders and how more women can invest in startups.

Maya Ghosn has joined us on The Purse Podcast.

She is a Lebanese/Brazilian investor and advisor to purpose-driven organisations with a focus on mental health and sexual health.

Maya is an active angel investor, investing personally and through Sequoia's scout program, as well as a Principal at Bridge Builders Collaborative, a US-based investment group focused on mental health.

We talk about (including) female angel investors, Maya's investment thesis, how Maya invests in startups, how to level the playing field for female founders and how do we encourage more women to invest?

Below is a short extract from the interview.

Jana: In the UK, only about 14%-17% of women invest in startups. But only half a percent of female angel investors have achieved a portfolio of 10 startups or more, which comes to about 157 women (in total)..out of a pool of approximately 3,500 or so angel investors. What are your thoughts on this? Why do you think that is?

Maya’s response:

I'll speak about the status quo more generally in terms of this paradigm of women investing far lower rates than men at the angel level.

I think that applies to both geographies (UK & the US). And I think there are a couple of very similar reasons.

One of them is just awareness.

I think that socially, this is very data driven in addition to qualitative from my own life experience, but collectively, women don't tend to talk about a business and certainly not their personal investments as much as men do.

It is not something that is a socially encouraged. It's not something that I think women are conditioned to do or supported in doing from a very early age.

If you think about the kinds of questions that parents or extend family members or teachers ask young girls versus the kinds of questions that are asked to young boys.

They're very, very different, right? I think that for girls, it's questions around maybe beauty or connection or social lives.

Versus with boys, it's what are you building? What did you create? I'm using this because I think it's important to understand that the roots come from very, very, very early days.

It doesn't mean we can't change them, but I think a lot of women are conditioned to not see that as something that is worth sharing…

So I think awareness is a really big one.

And speaking from my own lived experience, the facts that I learned in a very opportunistic way, just inspired by somebody I wanted to back.

The second is the risk. So angel investing in objective terms is extremely high risk, but there's a difference in how men versus women perceive the risk and I'd say internalise the risk in the sense that.

Generally speaking, women and men invest in risk differently.

So men, when they invest money, they see it as their money and they're more happy to take a risk with it.

Versus women (who) tend to think of money to invest as belonging to the household. And so they have a higher bar for responsibility and therefore I think tend to be less risk loving. So I think that's an important dynamic that's at play because again, angel investing is subjectively a very risky thing. 

The third thing is honestly a confidence and kind of stigma question.

The idea of women having a higher bar for feeling like they have the permission to do something professionally is not specific to this issue, right?

We see that in a lot of different areas where we see that women have placed the higher bar on themselves for asking for a promotion, asking for a raise, applying to that job. Whereas men are much more willing to just kind of jump into it.

And so we see that here in the sense that I was reading research that was interviewing UK women and said that fewer than a third of women in the UK rate themselves as a six or above out of 10 as it relates to their confidence in choosing even an investment account.

So literally only one third of women have any sort of confidence of 6 or above out of 10 in reading their ability. So I think that there is this self perception that is really holding women back.

And I don't personally like to extrapolate from that and say women have less knowledge. I don't think that's necessarily true. It's that women have a higher bar for the knowledge they need to feel confident or to feel adequate investing versus men.

Do you see what I mean? I think that's really where the issue is…

Listen to the full interview with Maya Ghosn.

News in Brief

Financial news

* US Federal Reserve terminal rate nudged higher following Jay Powell's Jackson Hole speech. Markets are now pricing in another 15bps of rate hikes.

* Debt is becoming more and more expensive: US 10y real yield briefly exceeds 2%, highest since 2009.

* European Central Bank (ECB) QT continues with balance sheet shrank to €7,153bn, lowest level since March 2021. Total assets now equal to 53% of Eurozone GDP vs Fed's 30%, BoE's 33% and BoJ's 126%.

* UK retailers plan to cut jobs as spending slump deepens, says CBI. Barometer of retail activity falls for fourth consecutive month to lowest level since March 2021.

* After the outstanding Nvidia figures and outlook, analysts have raised the average price target for the chip giant from $520 to $620.

* It really looks as if a new computing era has begun: Nvidia reports Q2 Data Center revenue of $10.32bn, up 171% YoY. "During the quarter, major cloud service providers announced massive Nvidia H100 (artificial intelligence) infrastructures," CEO Jensen Huang said. 

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin has dipped below $26k, smaller cryptos head lower on Fed's Powell's hawkish remarks. BTC is currently trading at $26K+

* Ethereum (ETH) matched Bitcoin’s pace. At its current price of $1,647, it is down 1.6% from last week.

* The only notable depreciation over the last seven days fell upon holders of Uniswap (UNI) and Avalanche (AVAX). AVAX fell 7.2% to $10.02, while UNI crashed 7.9% to $4.58.

* Pepe confirms former team members stole $15 million from multisig wallet. The theft was allegedly orchestrated by three ex-team members who accessed the Pepe multisig wallet, later deleting their social accounts and distancing themselves from the memecoin project.

* Sweeping U.S. tax proposal met with boos from the crypto world. Minutes after the U.S.’s long-awaited proposal for taxing crypto gains went public, objections erupted from those tied to decentralised operations counted as “brokers.”

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Female angle investors

* The UK vs US startup culture

* Maya's investment thesis

* How Maya invests in startups

* Angel networks and syndicates

* How female founders raise funding

* Investing lessons learnt

* How to level the playing field for female founders

* How do we encourage more women to invest

* More+

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* Trinny Woodall: ‘I didn’t stop caring when I turned 50 – I stopped worrying’

* A new start after 60: I’m a short, greying woman – and the world’s oldest battle rapper

* Ending the tampon tax has just made retailers richer. Can we stop weaponising periods?

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #198 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on women’s football, closing the World Cup gender pay gap and why investors are finally paying attention.

Good luck to the Lionesses (England women’s national football team) playing in the Women’s World Cup final today!

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Women’s football: closing the World Cup gender pay gap and why investors are finally paying attention

The gender pay gap is still significant in most tournaments.

Despite the prize pool increasing from $30m to $110m since the last Women’s World Cup in 2019, the gender pay gap is still significant in the most recent tournaments.

In fact, recent reports have suggested the Lionesses (England women’s national football team) are currently unhappy with their performance-related bonuses at the World Cup. This is as they play in the Women’s World Cup final today in Sydney.

The gender pay gap is not uncommon to see in what has been an underinvested market. Women’s football has struggled after being overlooked for decades by the sports male dominated authorities. Without significant investment and media attention, you can not grow a new market, and women can not get paid what they deserve.

Sounds familiar? Yeah, we’re tired of it too.

But here’s the good news:

* The route for national associations to plug the gap is being paved by the United States. Thanks to a 'historic' pay deal finalised last year, the U.S. Soccer Federation has pledged to pool all prize money won by the men's and women's team for competitions they both compete in, and share it out equally.

* Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that the Women's World Cup has ‘changed sport in Australia forever’ as he detailed a $200m boost for women's sport and an overhaul of broadcast rules.

* Barclays has made a £30m commitment to the women’s game from 2022-25.

* And according to Nicole Saharsky, a lawyer who helped the US women’s football team secure equal pay, the Lionesses ‘have ‘significant power’ to bargain with the FA and Fifa over their own salaries and bonuses’.

Ms Saharsky has gone on to say:

“I think that for many years, there was a perception by the Federation’s and from Fifa that the women’s sport was just not going to make as much money as the men’s sport or get the global attention of the men’s sport.

What has happened in the last few years has shown that that’s just not true.

The Euros got incredible viewership, got incredible ticket sales – the Lionesses have been selling out Wembley Stadium. When you sell out Wembley Stadium, you just have a lot more bargaining power in terms of being able to meet with the Federation and get equal pay and get good working conditions and everything else…

…People are interested in women’s sports, that women’s sports sell jerseys, they sell tickets, they sell broadcasting rights…

They make money and when the public is there wanting to get involved and watch the teams, it just is going to mean more and more success in terms of the women getting equal pay and better benefits.”

And so women’s football has been capturing the attention of investors..…but unlike the men’s leagues, women’s are increasingly being funded through venture capital and special purpose vehicles, as reported by the Financial Times.

* In 2022, the WNBA raised $75mn at a more than $1bn valuation, while the Los Angeles-based football team Angel City FC was valued at $100mn after its series A funding round.

What do investors look for?

* ‘Being digital-first’ from the beginning, ‘with a growth strategy focused around social media, online advertising and fan networks’.

* ‘Teams and leagues that are stable, where we know there is consumer demand and (where) we are at the beginning of a real media revenue cycle”.

Kara Nortman, a managing partner at global sports venture fund Monarch Collective and a founder of Angel City FC summarises it well by saying:

“Women’s sports is culture, and investors are starting to notice that potential..”

What next?

* (Re) read the article on The Monarch Collective raising $100m to invest in global women’s sports.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Do bloated revenue multiples make Big Tech risky? Nasdaq 100 comp trades at 4.6 times sales, far above the historical average.

* More China doom: China Yuan is close to a 14 year low, and far cheaper than in the summer of 2015, when a badly communicated devaluation prompted a minor global crisis. Their 10 year yields keep falling now at 2.6%.

* Russia’s central bank raises its key interest rate to 12% from 8.5% at an emergency meeting called after the Ruble crashed.

* 30 year US Treasury yield rises to 4.42%, highest since 2011.

* UK facing ‘high’ risk of recession despite inflation dropping to 6.8%. UK inflation has dropped to its lowest since February 2022, following cut in energy price cap, but IPPR warns economy could fall into recession

* Retail sales in Great Britain fell by 1.2% last month, more than expected, as people bought fewer summer clothes during the wet weather but also less food.

* News that Chinese property giant Evergrande filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan court prompted institutional investors and big holders to dump riskier assets.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin plunged briefly <$26k on news that Elon Musk's SpaceX has sold all its holdings of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin ends the week at $25,935, posting a seven-day drop of 11.9%.

* Ethereum (ETH) fared similarly, with an intraweek drop of 10.2% to $1,662.

* Altcoins generally tumbled harder, with most other leading cryptocurrencies posting losses of between 10% and 20%, including BNB, XRP, Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), Polygon (MATIC), and Avalanche (AVAX).

* Losses of over 20% were felt by holders of Uniswap (UNI), Litecoin (LTC), and Shiba Inu (SHIB), which dropped over 23%. 

* Yuga Labs slams OpenSea's shift to optional royalties. Yuga Labs intends to sever ties with OpenSea over the NFT platform's shift to a royalty-optional model. 

* Coinbase International volumes pick up, topping $280m in one day.

Coffee Break? Read This

* 3 ways our brains undermine our ability to be a good leader

* ‘I love you’: why men are much quicker to declare their feelings than women

* A new start after 60: I came out of my shell when I retired. Now, I’m a podcast star at 67

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #196 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we highlight the interview with the independent UK economist Shaun Richards who rejoins us on The Purse Podcast.

We talk about the Bank of England (BoE) and how credible are they, having increased interest rates 14 times in a row? We also talk about inflation, the cost of living crisis, CBDCs, the energy debate and what can we be optimistic about in the UK economy?

Listen here to the full interview.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

The BoE, rising interest rates and is inflation under control?

We talk to the independent UK economist, Shaun Richards on The Purse Podcast about the UK economy and what’s ahead.

Shaun Richards rejoined us on The Purse Podcast.

Shaun is an independent economist who specialises in inflation measurement and monetary economics. This follows a career in the City of London where he specialised in derivatives (mainly options) on interest rates and bonds.

He is a Bank of England watcher which covers the issues of monetary policy and money printing or quantitative easing (QE).

In this podcast interview we talk about the Bank of England (BoE)-are they doing a good job? Rising interest rates, is inflation under control, the cost of living crisis, CBDCs (digital currency), the energy debate and what can we be optimistic about in the UK economy?

Below is a short extract from the interview:

Jana: …And of course, here we are, the Bank of England has increased the base rate again to 5.25%. And it's probably going higher. The good news is that inflation has dipped a little bit in June to 7.9%. It was 8.7% in May. The obvious question, Shaun, is how effective do you think increasing interest rates in this market and economy is?

Because it doesn't really feel like we do have inflation under control in the UK or anywhere, although in the U.S. they're doing a lot better…

Shaun’s response:

Well, it depends how you measure it.

It's one of my specialist areas, but going back to your question: interest rates. You see what we've lost is what I would call the delta of an interest rate rise.

What happens in response to it?

Because the world's changed since the last time anyone did this, for a start. In the UK, last time interest rates were anything like this was back in 2007. We haven't seen a rise like this (which I think is also an important point, how quickly they've done it) for decades.

And then it was at very different levels and very different times. So there's quite a bit of uncertainty in that.

I run an analogy which goes as follows:

Interest rate rises are like a brick on a piece of elastic: nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens. Whack!

Where this time around, I think the risk is, they’ve done this in a rush ie 14 times in a row they've raised interest rates.

So the risk is, in the future, that we'll be hit by the brick. And then we will be wondering, what's happened?

And that's the problem.

What has changed in the meantime? I can give you two specific things which have slowed things up. You see, the old theory was you change interest rates and the full impact is felt about 18 months to two years later.

This time around things were different. Why?

In the UK there are a lot more fixed rate mortgages. Now they doesn’t last forever ie they are usually two, three, four or five year terms but that means to some extent people have bought time.

Now that's actually a good thing if you think about it.

Because central banks were saying all sorts of things when interest rates were very low, but it shows people were brighter than that… and it was best to get a bit of insurance.

…So there's a slower reaction function. And there's been some research in the United States saying that quite a lot of companies, particularly the bigger ones, borrowed when things were cheap.

They need to borrow less now. So the point of those two factors is that they're slowing the impact and that's probably why.. in these circumstances, the economy is doing quite well.

…We're doing better now, I think partly because of those two factors.

I think there's a third one. And the Bank of England won't like me for saying this:

I don't think people actually believe them and think that they'll cut again as soon as they can. So they're seeing this as a temporary phase. Of course, the problem is how long that lasts…

So they are the factors. I have a bit of relative optimism.

Now, I don't know what the Friday GDP numbers are saying this, but it looks as if there'll be positive for the second quarter (note: it was reported Friday that the UK GDP grew by 0.2% between April and June). It's quite tight.

..So we're moving forward, whereas… the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility were incredibly negative. I think that was wrong… And the risk was some sort of downward spiral, which hasn't happened…

Listen to the full interview with Shaun Richards.

News in Brief

Financial news

* China doom deepens. Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index which tracks China Tech tumbled 3.7%.

* US President Joe Biden warns China economy is ‘ticking time bomb.’ Biden’s swipes at China’s $18tn economy come at a sensitive time for Xi. China’s GDP grew at slower-than-expected pace of 5.5% in H1 2023 YoY, leading to worries about ripple effects for global economy.

* The US Federal Reserve paused quantitative tightening (QT) last week. Balance sheet remain almost unchanged at $8,208.2bn, equal to 30.6% of US's GDP vs ECB's 52.4%, SNB's 121% and BoJ's 130%.

* The comeback of bond vigilantes: US 10 year real rates have jumped to 1.77%, almost the highest level since 2009.

* US inflation a tad lower than what economists expected: US July CPI accelerates to 3.2% YoY from 3% in June vs 3.3% expected. But the first acceleration after 12 consecutive months of decline. Core CPI slows to 4.7% YoY from 4.8% in June as expected.

* UK GDP increased by 0.2% in April to June, up from 0.1% in the previous three months and the best quarterly reading in more than a year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

* UK house price gauge falls to lowest since 2009 as interest rates rise. But the tide may be turning, with Halifax, HSBC, TSB and Nationwide all announced cuts to their mortgage rates, in what the Daily Mail is dubbing a “mortgage price war”.

* Emerging market EM) returns over past 5-10 years have been lackluster, with most EM equities returning low-to-mid single digits. Over longer-term, returns range from extraordinary (India: 1000%) to respectable (Indonesia: 469%) despite volatility & some prolonged periods of choppy trading, Bank of America (BoA) has calculated. All EMs have outperformed China's 22% total return.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Market leader Bitcoin (BTC) added a modest 1.5% to its market value over the seven days to trade at $29,300+ on Sunday. 

* Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest coin by market capitalisation, appeared to match the top coin’s pace, adding 1.3% to enter the weekend at $1,850+

* Solana (SOL) grew 8.5% to its current price of $24.55; Toncoin (TON) added 10.1% to hit $1.32, and Shiba Inu (SHIB) blew up 17.8% to trade at $0.00001108.

* On Monday, payments giant PayPal announced it would be releasing an Ethereum-based dollar-pegged stablecoin called PayPal USD (PYUSD). 

* Brazil has announced the name of its new central bank digital currency (CBDC): DREX, or the “digital real”— the name being a near-acronym for “digital real electronic transaction.”

* Paradigm, a16z file brief supporting Coinbase in battle with SEC. “The SEC’s regulatory overreach, coupled with the unpredictability and arbitrariness of its actions, threatens the development of blockchain technology in the United States,” the firms said in their brief. 

* Pending Grayscale ruling could tip balance in race for bitcoin ETF. It is possible that a favourable Grayscale ruling and the Coinbase surveillance sharing agreements “will be enough to get the SEC over the finish line on spot bitcoin ETF approval.” 

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* How credible is the Bank of England (BoE)?

* Rise in interest rates

* The cost of living crisis

* The energy debate

* CBDCs (digital currency)

* What can we be optimistic about in the UK economy?

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* 6 things people do around the world to slow down

* A smart way to handle anxiety — courtesy of soccer great Lionel Messi

* Between the World Cup and Barbie, we’re finally having an honest discussion about girlhood.

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #195 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on Oxfam’s recent research which says that almost two-thirds of women’s working hours each week are unpaid and ‘ignored’ by official statistics measuring economic activity.

The good news is that Oxfam has added its voice to calls to move ‘beyond GDP (gross domestic product)’ so that it better reflects the ‘reality and the needs of the society we live in today’.

And the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in the UK, has already said it is ‘working on radical plans to go ‘beyond GDP’.

***

And don’t forget, you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Jana

Women: 65% of weekly working hours is ignored in official data (but change is afoot)

Oxfam has recently added its voice to calls to move ‘beyond GDP’.

According to recent Oxfam research, almost two-thirds of women’s working hours each week are unpaid and ‘ignored’ by official statistics measuring economic activity, as reported by Yahoo Life.

The charity has said:

“…not taking account of unpaid care for a child or sick adults, or domestic work such as cooking and cleaning – much of which is carried out by women – means these activities are invisible in the formal economy and not valued properly…”

Across the globe, 42% of women cannot get jobs because they are responsible for all the caregiving, compared to just 6% of men.

The more time a woman spends on unpaid work, the less time she can spend on building her skills, experience and her network. There is a real opportunity cost for women in terms of their career, promotion and how much they earn.

Women often have less disposable income to invest and build far less wealth. This leads to limited funds in retirement and hardship in old age.

Oxfam has added its voice to calls to move “beyond GDP (gross domestic product)”..

… the main measure of a country’s economic growth based on the value of goods and services produced during a given period.

Oxfam said GDP is:

‘anti-feminist and colonial because it sustains a framework of value creation and productivity that only counts what can be monetised…

Women are rendered to the ‘private’ sphere and their work is invisible. At the same time, GDP has helped erase indigenous and alternative conceptions of what can and should be valued.’

If women’s work was measured the Official National Statistics (ONS) has calculated this to be valued at over £1 trillion+ in the UK (alone).

And if we valued care work the same as other work, it would be worth nearly $11 trillion a year, according to research by Oxfam.

The ONS has already said it is ‘working on radical plans to go ‘beyond GDP’”, including ‘new and innovative metrics reflecting the impact of economic change on people and the environment’.

A report last year by the Centre for Progressive Policy think tank found women in the UK are providing more than twice as much unpaid childcare per year as men:

* 23.2 billion hours (women) vs with 9.7 billion hours (men)

Anam Parvez, Oxfam head of research report author, has said:

“Women are being short-changed the world over, pushed deeper into time and income poverty. To add insult to injury, the majority of their work is ignored by official statistics. Unpaid care is a hidden subsidy to the global economy; without it the system would collapse.”

She said Government policies and budgets ‘should be guided by a set of metrics that look at the whole picture, including closing the divide between the richest and the rest, instead of relentlessly pursuing growth for its own sake’.

Unpaid and underpaid care work perpetuates gender and economic inequalities. And women continue to be exposed to more financial risk as a result.

On a positive note, the ONS has recently published new estimates of inclusive growth, which does include unpaid work undertaken at home. And they plan to develop these figures to show the impact of growth on the environment.

What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Podcast:

* #89: Making women visible: rewriting the history of economic thought with Edith Kuiper

* #92: Human economics and why it matters, gender bias in economics, the impact on women and why economists need to be more radical with Julie Nelson

News in Brief

Financial news

* US yields skyrocketed after Fitch stripped the US of its AAA rating. 10 year yields now at 4.15%, highest since November 2022.

* The Bank of Japan had to intervene twice this week to slow gains in government bond yields, underscoring its determination to curb sharp moves in rates.

* US Federal Reserve QT accelerates. Fed balance sheet shrank $91bn in July, -$759bn from peak, biggest drop ever to $8.2tn, lowest level since July 2021.

* Economists are hopeful that the US economy is on track for a soft landing, after US employers added 187,000 jobs in July, less than expected.

* The Euro is now overvalued against the Dollar for the first time in 2 years, says the Big Mac index.

* Britain is stuck in a ‘low-growth trap’, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned, after the Bank of England lifted interest rates to a 15-year high of 5.25% on Thursday.

* Moneyfacts reports that the average 2-year fixed residential mortgage rate today is 6.85%.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to $28,900 Friday afternoon and has recovered slightly above the $29,000 level.

* ADA, SOL and MATIC, the tokens of smart contracts platforms, Cardano, Solana and Polygon, also reversed giving up early gains.

* Chainlink co-founder wants to bring trillions of dollars into crypto from banks. He anticipates this could bring a lot of value into the crypto space.

* Tether is now the 11th largest bitcoin holder in the world. The stablecoin issuer currently holds about $1.6 billion worth of the digital asset.

* Curve Finance exploiter returns stolen funds, teases 'I'm smarter than all of you'. Across three separate transaction batches, the Curve Finance exploiter returned a total of 4,820 alETH and 2,258 ETH to the protocol.

* Asset management firm Valkyrie has filed to convert its Bitcoin Strategy exchange-traded fund into a Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF on Oct. 3, 2023.

* Coinable announces new Web3-powered cryptocurrency marketplace. Coinable’s new app will allow users to buy and sell goods using cryptocurrencies, as well as invest in crypto assets.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Perfectionism holding you back? 3 ways to shift the habit

* Barbie’s muddled feminist fantasy still bows to the patriarchy

* ‘Birdnesting’: why divorcing couples are taking turns to live in the family home

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #194 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight the research published by the British Business Bank on how to improve diversity in the UK venture capital industry.

In 2022, female founders received just 2% of venture capital funding.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Triin Linamagi, Founding Partner of Sie Ventures. We talk about female founders, raising capital, female investors and how gender lens investing can become mainstream.

Listen here to the full interview.

***

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Report: improving diversity in UK venture capital firms

The British Business Bank has published its report on how to improve diversity in the UK VC industry.

The British Business Bank recently published its report on improving diversity in the UK venture capital industry.

Despite making strides in recent years, women are still vastly underrepresented in venture capital or entrepreneurship.

Out of all venture capital investment in the UK, all-female founder and mixed-gender teams receive about 1% and 10% respectively; while all-male teams get 89%. In 2022, female founded teams received just 2% of venture capital funding.

In terms of entrepreneurship, only 1 in 3 are women and approximately 14%+ of angel investors are female. And we know that female investors invest (in female founders) up to three times the rate of male investors

Recently, UK MPs also have urged the Treasury to make collecting and publishing the diversity statistics of venture capital firms and their investments a requirement for eligibility.

The research from the British Business Bank has contributed new evidence ‘by asking investors and entrepreneurs to share their experiences of the most effective actions’.

Based on their analysis, the British Business Bank suggests there are at least three different ‘pathways’ to success that venture capital firms have taken:

Pathway 1: diversity at the top

* These venture capital firms focus on increasing diversity among key decision-makers, particularly the Investment Committee. A broader range of views ‘at the top’ can result in more investment in non-traditional or underserved founders.

Pathway 2: inclusion in the pipeline

* These venture capital firms put far more emphasis on increasing inclusion in the deal flow pipeline. They actively seek out diverse teams, engage with scouts to diversify the investment opportunities they are exposed to and use accelerators and incubators for earlier stage firms.

Pathway 3: transparency and accountability

* These firms subscribe to the notion that ‘what gets measured gets done’. Measuring and delivering progress is regarded as essential supported by an emphasis on external communication, genuine commitment and active participation in industry-wide collection.

Entrepreneurs have also validated the above approaches and offer additional insight for venture capital firms, this includes:

* Entrepreneurs place high value on feedback and cross-referrals to other venture capital investors.

* The role of the Limited Partner (LP) community is key to encouraging adoption of actions and accountability.

More detail is provided in ‘Evidence on Each Action’.

One of the reasons we are starting to see more women launch venture capital funds, whether solo or otherwise, is to address markets often ignored or misunderstood by mostly white, male venture capitalists.

This is a step change which is also putting more pressure on a traditional industry which has been very slow to adjust and shift its focus to being more inclusive and diverse.

What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Podcast:

* #90: Fintech, building a scale-up, female founders and fundraising with Sabrina Del Prete

* #97: Sie Ventures, investing in female founders and what female investors bring to the table with Triin Linamagi

News in Brief

Financial news

* Fed’s Chairman Jerome Powell: Fed Staff no longer forecasting a recession this year.

* Fed raised interest rates to the highest level in 22 years as expected and left the door open to additional increases as officials fine-tune their effort to further quell inflation.

* ECB raises all rates by 25bps as expected. Deposit rate to 3.75%, highest since April 2001, main refinancing rate to 4.25%, highest since 2008. It is the ninth consecutive hike in a cycle that started exactly one year ago.

* Eurozone M2 money growth turned negative for the first time in Eurozone history, in a promising sign for inflation. M2 growth revised to -0.1% in May from initially +0.3%, and falls deeper into negative territory in June to -0.5%.

* Pound on worst run since March 2020 as weak economy curbs interest rate rises. New report suggests British economy almost stalled in July as consumers limited spending.

* Meta stock surges after company reports 11% rise in revenue. Revenue grew to $32bn, marking company’s most profitable quarter since 2021, as news sends stocks surging by 7%.

* MPs challenge VC firms over record on female and minority-led firms. Treasury committee finds huge majority of venture capital funding goes to companies run by white men in south-east England.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin (BTC) lost 1.7% and is currently trading at $29,287, while Ethereum (ETH) lost 0.9% and changes hands at $1,875.

* Shibarium blockchain's Ethereum bridge goes live for testing as SHIB tries to shed meme coin tag.

* Sam Altman’s Worldcoin launches token with more than two million sign-ups. The project frames itself as an antidote to some of the problems posed by the explosion of AI tools like ChatGPT, but it has faced harsh criticism from privacy advocates.

* France's privacy watchdog looking into Worldcoin's 'questionable' legality. France privacy watchdog CNIL initiated investigations into Worldcoin.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Sie Ventures: the backstory

* Why is it still difficult for female founders to raise funding?

* Female founders generate higher returns

* The vision for the fund & thesis

* Investing in diversity

* Female investors-how do they differ in how they invest?

* How do we ensure gender lens investing goes mainstream?

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* The untouchable day every week

* Feeling unseen by your boss? Here’s what you can do

* The new science of motherhood shows it’s far more transformative than western culture allows.

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #193 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on Verve and their recent $3m fund raise which they will use to launch an ethical investing app aimed at women investors.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with money coach Bernadette Joy, who built her first $1m of net worth in her 30s as a first generation Filipina-American, the eighth of her father's nine children.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Verve raises $3m to launch ethical investing app aimed at women investors

The Verve Money app aims to help women grow their wealth.

Verve, which offers Verve Super, the pension fund in Australia ‘for women, by women’, has closed a $3m fund raise early.

The funding will go towards a new goal-focused ethical investing app, the Verve Money app, which will specifically cater to the preferences of women investors, reported by Business News Australia.

As we know, a great wealth transfer is coming, passed down from the baby boomer generation, and women will be the biggest beneficiaries.

Co-founders Alex Andrews, Christina Hobbs and Zoe Lamont have received significant support from investors who ‘were investing because they felt passionately about seeing us succeed’ such as impact focused family office Alberts, which led the raise.

"We're longstanding supporters of impact focused businesses and female founder-led businesses. We were so impressed by Verve’s ethos of being founded by women, led by women, and tailored for women, and most importantly by how much existing Verve members love Verve," said Alberts’ director, Kirsty Albert.

Although anyone can join the app, Verve gives ‘a special welcome to anyone who is a woman, non-binary, a migrant, First Nations person or identifying within any other underrepresented group in investing’.

CEO and co-founder Christine Hobbs said that ‘there is a strong opportunity to support women throughout their wealth building journey’ and to help close the gender wealth gap.

The plan is to invest (in):

* 20% of the Verve Money portfolio into climate solutions

* efficient transport

* recycling

* education

* healthcare

* healthy food production

* renewable energy

* technology

* social wellbeing

* and gender diversity.

Moreover, Verve will not invest in companies that:

* exclude women from senior leadership positions

* engage in labour rights abuses

* environmental destruction

* the offshore detention of people

* tobacco

* gambling

* pornography

* live animal exports

* fossil fuels

* weapons, armaments, and 'nuclear and uranium'.

Verve Money's approved investment list includes the Artesian Green + Sustainable Bond Fund, Plenti renewable energy loans, the Australian Unity Specialist Disability Accommodation Fund, and globally listed companies such as Vestas Wind Systems, Beyond Meat, and recycling group Umicore.

As a financial services company, Verve has always been considered ‘unconventional’. Traditional financial services firms tend to aim their products and services at the male customer by default.

For example:

..Verve provides its 25,000-plus members with the tools to have a discussion with their employers about maintaining pension payments while on parental leave and also offers access to an external divorce and separation coach and career coach for no additional fee.

The female customer has never carried more importance, especially in this decade as women will control two-thirds of household wealth by 2030.

News in Brief

Financial news

* The US Fed quantitative tightening (QT) continues with balance sheet dropped by $22.4bn past week. It is 6th week in a row that total assets shrink.

* Bond king Bill Gross says bond bull market isn’t ‘in the cards’ as yields peak. Deficit, Fed quantitative tightening put floor under yields.

* Wheat prices keep rising after Ukraine warns on Russia ships in a tit-for-tat response to a similar warning from Moscow.

* UK 2 year yields plunge by 22bps as inflation dropped <8% for first time in over a year.

* UK inflation expected to fall after grocery price rises ease. The annual pace of grocery price growth cooled to 14.9% over the four weeks to 9 July, down from 16.5% a month earlier.

* Diversified funds can not buy more tech giants – many of largest mutual fund firms running into limits. Combined market cap of 6 Big Tech comps has jumped to 57% of total Nasdaq 100 market cap.

* Apple hit ATH after Bloomberg report on AI tools. Company builds large language models & internal chatbot.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* The world's largest cryptocurrency dipped below the $30,000 mark on Friday — falling 1.2% to $29,876.12 according to CoinGecko. (Currently trading at $29,925).

* Crypto survey finds 47% of investors expect Ether to ‘surpass’ Bitcoin. Year-to-date, Ether $1,875 has gained 62%.

* Litecoin price at risk of a 30% drop if key LTC futures historical trend repeats. A multiyear review of Litecoin futures open interest reveals a unique trend that has significantly impacted the LTC price in the past.

* Europe’s first spot Bitcoin ETF eyes 2023 debut after year-long delay. Jacob Asset Management got approval from the Guernsey financial regulator in October 2021 and was set to debut on Euronext Amsterdam Exchange in July 2022.

* BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF approval is 'a long shot,' analyst claims. However, the analyst said public comments by Larry Fink, BlackRock's CEO, have lent considerable momentum to Bitcoin.

* Kevin Rose’s a16z-backed Moonbirds launches 200-day reveal of new collection. Average sales prices for Moonbirds have declined by nearly ten times from what they once were. Last month a Moonbirds NFT sold for an average of about $3,850, according to CryptoSlam!.

* The UK's Financial Conduct Authority is launching a permanent version of its Digital Sandbox for firms to test products at an early stage of development.

* The UK government has dismissed the idea of regulating the cryptocurrency sector like gambling. 

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Money scripts and why mental health drives wealth

* Why renting is better than homeownership

* Growing personal wealth through other investment vehicles

* Why women need to become financially independent.

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* The 7 types of people you need in your life to be resilient

* ‘Motherhood is really tough’: Johanna Konta returns to Wimbledon

* ‘We could soon see a Jane Austen-style marriage market’: how the housing crisis is turning modern dating on its head.

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #192 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on the UK housing market and why prices have only fallen 4% so far.

Lower demand should be driving down home prices. So what is going on?

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

UK housing market: prices to drop further (but likely to avoid a crash)

House prices have dropped by 4% so far, but they are likely to fall further.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has said there is “a renewed deterioration in UK home sales”, as reported by The Guardian.

Would-be buyers of homes hit an eight-month low in June, and the estate agent Winkworth warned this week on profits because of a slump in activity.

According to Moneyfacts data, a typical two-year fixed deal has risen to 6.66% even though Barratt Developments has said that demand from existing homeowners remains resilient.

But why have UK house prices only fallen 4% so far?

* We’re not yet in a recession.

* However the downturn is not expected to be as deep as after the financial crisis 2008/9 or in the early 1990s.

* Sharp rises of unemployment is not ‘on the cards’ this time.

* Instead we have earnings growth ripping along at 7.3% in the three months to May compared with a year earlier.

Calculated by Nationwide last month, a 10% deposit on a typical first-time buyer home is equal to about 55% of gross annual income, down from the all-time highs of 59% of late 2022 but still marginally above 2007-08 levels.

However the cost-of-living crisis is making it close to impossible for most to save for a deposit. Therefore it is more than likely that house prices will fall even further (as less people will be able to afford to buy).

According to think tank Capital Economics, their forecast is that UK house prices will decline by 8% over the next 12 months, with the overall drop to 12% from the peak.

What next? Check out these resources:

* Best mortgage rates in the UK

* Remortgaging in 2023

* When will interest rates rise?

News in Brief

Financial news

* FTSE 100 marks best day of 2023 as US inflation falls to 3%. The FTSE 100 index gained 133.5 points on Wednesday to 7,416 points, up 1.83%, its best day since November 2022.

* China slides to brink of deflation, adding stimulus urgency. CPI was 0% YoY in June, lowest rate in >2years. Producer price deflation deepens to worst since December 2015.

* BlackRock is eating the world: Assets under Management (AuM) rose to $9.4tn in Q2 2023, up from $8.5tn a year earlier & $9.1tn in Q1, mainly driven by buoyant markets. Net inflows for the quarter were $80bn, down from $89.6bn a year ago and $110bn in Q1, amid heightened economic uncertainties. Analysts were expecting $105bn in inflows.

* Goldilocks on steroids: US 2 year yields keep falling. Drop 12bps to 4.63% because markets expect 6.6 interest rate cuts of 25 basis points each by the end of 2024.

* It looks as if the markets first underestimated the rise in inflation and now the plunge. US inflation cools to 3% YoY in June from 4% in May; core dropped 50bps to +4.8% YoY down from +5.3%.

* Swiss Franc rises to strongest against the Dollar since 2015 after weaker than expected US inflation data.

* European Central Bank QT continues with balance sheet shrank by another €12.8bn to €7.207bn, lowest since March 2021. ECB's total assets now equal to 53% of Eurozone GDP vs Fed's 31%, SNB's 121%, and BOJ's 128%.

* Thursday: the pound has hit a fresh 15-month high after the UK economy shrank by less than expected in May.

* UK economy shrinks by 0.1% in May after coronation festivities. The Office for National Statistics said that gross domestic product (GDP) fell on the month, after growth of 0.2% in April, as manufacturing, energy generation and construction all dropped.

* Nasdaq 100 rebalance: weight of Big 6 comps Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla reached 50.9%. Nasdaq methodology paper implies that group’s influence needs to be slashed to 40%. Cutting megacaps down to size will enable tech’s best-known benchmark to offer better diversification and regain its balance.

* The Adobe online price index tumbled 2.6% YoY in June, the biggest drop since May 2020.

* Goldman Sachs says India will overtake US to become world's second-largest economy by 2075. On top of a burgeoning population, driving the forecast is country’s progress in innovation & technology, higher capital investment and a rising worker productivity.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Crypto spot volumes increase post Ripple ruling. Data from The Block's data dashboard shows the seven day moving average for spot trading volumes on exchanges increased from $12.74bn on July 12 to $16.56bn on July 14.

* In landmark decision and a major victory for Ripple, a federal judge ruled that the Ripple Labs XRP token is a security when sold to institutional investors but NOT the general public. XRP jumps 30%. Whether cryptocurrencies are securities has been a major question hanging over the industry, which has long fought efforts to regulate it by arguing that they are not.

* BlackRock CEO: Larry Fink: ‘crypto will transcend anyone currency’. The boss of the world’s biggest asset manager on Friday continued to sing Bitcoin’s praises.

* SEC formally accepts BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF application for review. The company filed a revised application, adding a "surveillance sharing" clause that would involve the Coinbase crypto exchange monitoring and reporting possible illegal activity.

* JPMorgan says Ripple's XRP ruling is a win for Coinbase. Ripple’s XRP ruling favours Coinbase, according to JPMorgan analysts, because it may be applied to the 13 tokens the SEC alleged are securities in its lawsuit against Coinbase last month.

* Coinbase's market cap relative to Uniswap surges. Coinbase has seen its shares surge by more than 213% since the beginning of the year-supercharged by BlackRock's surprise filing for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

* Cathie Wood's Ark Invest sells more Coinbase shares worth over $50 million. Ark Invest sold 478,356 shares, worth more than $50m of Coinbase as the stock continued to rally.

* Gucci and Christie's team up for generative Art NFT auction. Luxury fashion brand Gucci is partnering with auction house Christie's for an NFT sale called "Future Frequencies," showcasing digital art inspired by Gucci design elements.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Would your finances pass a mid-life financial MOT test?

* Allyship: the missing link between female funders and female founders

* Parliament launches new inquiry into sexism and misogyny in the City

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #191 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we highlight a short extract from The Purse Podcast interview with UK economist Vicky Pryce.

We talk about why UK inflation continues to be so high, the impact Brexit has had on UK inflation, the cost of living crisis, wealth inequality and what’s ahead for rest of 2023 and 2024.

Listen to the full podcast interview here.

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

UK inflation: why is it so ‘sticky’?

We talk to UK economist, Vicky Pryce on The Purse Podcast about UK inflation and what’s ahead for the rest of 2023 and 2024.

Vicky Pryce has rejoined us on The Purse Podcast.

Vicky Pryce is Chief Economic Adviser and a board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

In this podcast interview we talk about why UK inflation is so ‘sticky’, the impact Brexit has had on UK inflation, the cost of living crisis, wealth inequality, and what’s ahead for the rest of 2023 and 2024.

Below is a short extract from the interview:

Jana: …The expectation was that we would come down to 2% (inflation), or thereabouts, by 2023. Why is inflation proving to be so difficult to get under control? Because I think people are quite worried now, aren't they?

Vicky’s response:

Indeed…it’s really interesting what's been going on. But of course, it varies so significantly from country to country.

The FT quote that you just read out suggests is that in nowhere are we likely to get back to the 2% target before 2025. But if you look at individual countries, that's not true.

We've already got some countries in Europe, such as Spain, for example, which is below the 2% target of the European central bank.

…So what we've seen in many countries, inflation has been reducing and reducing quite significantly. The question of whether we get back to where we used to be ie inflation staying around 2%, when that will happen and whether it's going to stay there for a long period of time, as before, is a good one.

We may have left the period of low inflation behind because we now know that with the war in Ukraine, anything would happen with energy prices, food prices could go up or down. And climate change is affecting things.

Maybe globalisation isn't happening at the rate that we had assumed. In fact, if anything, we're retreating from it.

All of that is making it harder to see prices staying low over a period of time. So inflation will still be there. High prices probably are here to stay (if you compare it to the 2% target).

In other words, even if inflation is tamed, we're still going to have prices at higher levels than before.

…But it's not as dire as it looks and as most economists have predicted once the energy problem disappears (or at least is abated for a while), then inflation would be coming down.

The real question is whether we've now generated a lot of ‘cost push’ through higher wages and where will that end? We all thought things would ease up quite dramatically after we saw the energy prices come down, which they have, but in the UK, we're still seeing really high inflation.

Jana: Brexit has a big part to play in the UK. I'm fascinated by the fact that in the US, their inflation has come down to approximately 3.4%. It was very high at 9% or so. And it's come down dramatically, but we're not seeing that in the UK. How much of the high UK inflation is as a result of Brexit?

Vicky’s response:

It's something which is quite hard to define.

But one of the ex-monetary policy committee members, Adam Posen, had worked out that something like 80% of the difference between the UK and Europe in terms of inflation is due to Brexit because, of course, we have barriers to trade.

It's not necessarily tariffs, but everything else that's going on. Getting things sent over from Europe has become considerably more expensive and it’s likely to continue on an upward trend when even more restrictions are imposed by the UK.

Hardly any (restrictions) have been imposed for the moment, but it's still quite hard to do business really with Europe in a number of areas…

Listen here to the full interview with Vicky Pryce.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Mind the gap: while liquidity from the three leading central banks has recently fallen sharply, the Nasdaq 100 has nevertheless risen.

* The value of global bonds drop another $754bn this week – the second weekly loss in a row – as the interest rate world is just repricing for more Fed hikes.

* US 5 year real yields jumped +7.0bps, closing above 2% for the first time since 2008, highlighting that policy and yields are getting more restrictive.

* Fed Terminal Rate unchanged at 5.4% after the release of FOMC minutes which are consistent with recent policy narrative. Fed bias remains hawkish as expected. Further rate hikes expected this year. The market is pricing in another ~33bp worth of increases.

* US wage growth stronger than expected in June, but job creation slows. Wages rose by 0.4% last month, while total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000, and the unemployment rate has dropped to 3.6%.

* ECB Balance Sheet plunged by €491bn last week, biggest drop since Dec2022 as banks repaid €503bn of their TLTRO loans & due to quarter-end adjustments.

* Five-year fixed mortgage rate hits 6%. UK borrowers continue to be hit by higher mortgage rates as the cost of living squeeze continues.

* UK house prices fall at fastest annual rate since 2011, says Halifax. Average price of property drops by 2.6% year on year in June as mortgage rates climb.

* Food inflation starting to fall, says Sainsbury’s as sales rise. Like-for-like sales up 9.8% in quarter and supermarket says it has put more than £60m into cutting prices of basics.

* The world’s 500 richest people added $852bn to their fortunes in the first half of 2023. Each member of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index made an average of $14m per day in H1.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin 'holds its ground' amid multiple signals that rate hikes could continue. Bitcoin is hovering just above $30,000 amid multiple signals that more rate hikes could be in store this year.  

* Bitcoin hit a one-year high after crossing the $31,000 threshold on Monday on news that the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, was refiling its application to the SEC for a Bitcoin spot ETF.

* Solana thrived in spite of news that popular trading app Revolut is delisting it—along with Polygon (MATIC) and Cardano (ADA)—after they were named as securities by the SEC in its ongoing lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase. 

* BlackRock CEO Larry Fink sees bitcoin as 'digitising gold'. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Wednesday that he wanted to work with regulators and hear any concerns they may have about a recent filing from the asset manager for a spot bitcoin ETF.

* Bitcoin miner fee revenue saw 300% jump in Q2, driven by activity around Ordinals.

* Coinbase knew it violated securities law, SEC says. Lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took an incredulous tone to Coinbase’s argument that it did not know it violated securities laws.

* Grayscale makes Lido the second-heaviest component in its DeFi Fund. LDO’s weight in the fund sits at 19.04%, second only to Uniswap’s UNI at 45.46%.

* Binance marketshare at lowest point since beginning of the year. Binance’s marketshare among exchanges with no USD support has shrunk from 72% at the start of the year to 58%.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Inflation and getting back to the target 2%

* UK inflation-energy prices and food prices

* Brexit and the impact on inflation

* Rising interest rates and mortgages

* Cost of living crisis

* Wealth inequality

* What's ahead for 2023 and 2024

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* The key to wedded bliss is a joint bank account? I don’t buy it

* #MeToo has got men quaking in the corridors of power. That’s something to celebrate

* Friday briefing: Life under an American abortion ban, told through one woman’s tragic story

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #189 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on Fearless Fund’s multi-million dollar follow-on investment from Bank of America, Costco and Mastercard.

In an ecosystem which chronically underestimates and underfunds women and women of colour in particular, the Fearless Fund is making significant strides to redress the balance.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Investing in women of colour: Fearless Fund receives multi-million dollar follow-on investment

Institutional investors are backing women of colour entrepreneurs

Fearless Fund recently received a multimillion-dollar follow-on investment from Bank of America, Costco and MasterCard for its second fund, as reported by Techcrunch.

Fearless Fund was launched in 2019 by Arian Simone, Keshia Knight Pulliam and Ayana Parsons, and raised $25.8m for the first fund, whilst the second fund aims to raise at least double that.

The fund invests in early-stage consumer and technology startups founded by women of colour.

In an ecosystem which chronically underestimates…

…and underfunds women and Black founders, women receive 2% in venture capital funding versus 1.2% for Black founders (US).

The data shows that women invest in female founders at 2-3x the rate of men. And if they share a similar background or lived experience to the founder, gender and racial bias is often reduced, if not altogether eliminated.

As per the Fearless Fund’s press release:

Fearless Fund, was created with the mission of increasing the number of Women of Colour-founded businesses and taking those businesses to new heights. Through the past few years, Fearless Fund has created a space that allows the top Women of Colour businesses to thrive in their respective fields. The investments they have received play a tremendous role in the continuation of discovering these businesses as well as providing the opportunity to be educated and their needs be acknowledged.

Moreover, the investments received will allow Fearless Fund to further expand their portfolio of women of colour-founded and co-founded companies and provide adequate funding and mentorship opportunities.

In addition to their investment, Mastercard has continued their partnership with Fearless Fund to host the third annual Fearless Strivers Grant Contest:

* awarding Black women small businesses across the country with $20,000 grants,

* Mastercard Digital Doors tools,

* and mentorship to help Black women founders get access to the capital and resources they need.

The firm will also host its second Fearless VC Summit, with Costco, on August 18 in Atlanta.

And it also plans to partner with lenders to provide debt financing solutions to small businesses led by women of colour.

The social impact of investing in female founders and Black founders..

… is vast because the markets they address have been ignored or marginalised by investors for so long. And these underinvested markets are also underserving their customers.

It follows that the startup valuations for female founders and Black founders are often below market value. Therefore traditional investors can buy in at a discount.

This is despite female founders having a higher return on investment than their male peers. Why? They often have to bootstrap their startup for longer and become better money managers in the process.

Simply put: they do more with less. And generate a higher return on investment

News in Brief

Financial news

* The Buffett crash indicator is sounding the alarm again after stocks have soared too much this year. Global stocks are now worth more than the global GDP.

* US tech has enjoyed an incredible H1. The Nasdaq 100 is on track for best first half in its 52-year history. Nvidia was the star performer surging more than 180 percent thanks to this year’s buzz around artificial intelligence.

* FTSE 100 ends weak H1 with gains but the FTSE 100 has gained just over 1% so far this year, as it missed out on the global stock market rally.

* Fed-preferred inflation gauge shows lowest US inflation rate since April 2021. PCE deflator dropped to 3.8% YoY in May from 4.3% in April as expected. Core PCE deflator unexpectedly slowed to 4.6% YoY in May from 4.7% prior.

* Eurozone inflation fell more than expected in June as energy prices fell further & food price inflation eased, but Core CPI ticks higher.

* Eurozone M2 money growth slows to 0.3%, slowest in history, in a promising sign for inflation.

* High interest rates may persist, says Bank of England governor. Andrew Bailey says financial markets expect more rate rises amid continuing high inflation.

* UK house prices have defied expectations by growing slightly in June but annual prices fell at the fastest rate since 2009 as soaring mortgage costs took a toll on the market, according to Nationwide building society.

* Apple stock hits $3tn market value as new gadget releases loom. Apple shares have gained around 48% so far this year, as it recovered from a rough 2022 in which they fell almost 27%.

* AI Boom drives historic $5tn Nasdaq 100 run. Nasdaq 100 gained almost 40% year-to-date, notching its best ever first-half of a year.

* The huge Big Tech rally resulted in the Nasdaq 100 now trading at nearly 26 times estimated earnings, above its 10 year average of 21. Apple, Microsoft & Nvidia are notably above their averages, even as they remain below pandemic-era peaks.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* The price of bitcoin fell Friday following a report that recent bitcoin filings from big names such as BlackRock and Fidelity have been deemed inadequate in the eyes of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Currently trading at $30,500). The spot bitcoin ETF could face significant hurdles.

* 'Battle-tested' bitcoin could reach $200,000 as top Wall Street names jump in, Fundstrat's Tom Lee says.

* The silver to Bitcoin's 'digital gold' is soaring: Litecoin is one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies right now—and just entered the top 10 digital assets by market cap again.

* Bitcoin Cash (BCH) continues its uptrend that started after its listing on Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Charles Schwab Corp.,-backed EDX Markets on June 20. The BCH token is the highest weekly gainer in the top 300 tokens by market capitalisation on CoinGecko, with 114.3% gains. 

* Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has said that he doesn’t like the way U.S. regulators are targeting crypto projects—including his blockchains’s biggest rival, Solana.

* Crypto exchange Kraken must provide a wide variety of information about its users to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). According to a Friday court filing, the company will need to produce full documentation for any Kraken user that bought, sold, or traded at least $20,000 worth of cryptocurrency between 2016 and 2020.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Women in leadership face ageism at every stage

* Let’s stop calling them “soft skills” — and call them “real skills” instead

* A new start after 60: I was devastated by divorce at 70. But at 102, I know the secrets of a well-lived life

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #186 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on BlackRock’s filing for a spot bitcoin ETF in the US. It has been 10 years since the first filing for a spot bitcoin ETF.

However, investors are weighing up the latest development in the crypto industry’s battle with the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) regarding regulation and guidance.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

BlackRock files for a spot bitcoin ETF

The filing with the SEC comes 10 years after the first filing for a spot bitcoin ETF.

BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, on Thursday filed for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US, as reported by Reuters.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust will use Coinbase Custody as its custodian, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Crypto prices climbed a day after the announcement. But investors are weighing the latest development in the crypto industry’s battle with the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) regarding regulation and guidance.

If this ETF is approved, it is likely to open the floodgates to institutional investors adding bitcoin to their investment portfolios.

One of the purposes of bitcoin is diversification, as it is regarded as an ‘alternative investment’. It also has a different risk profile compared to traditional financial markets. So whilst this investment carries more risk, there is disproportionate upside for investors.

Referred to as ‘digital gold’…

…bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world, currently trading at $26,500 with a global cryptocurrency market capitalisation at around $1.10 trillion.

This year bitcoin has rallied 80% higher than previous year levels. However, the road to recovery is long, as bitcoin is still down almost 50%, from its all-time high which crossed $69,000, in November 2021. 

Bitcoin is a decentralised and permissionless (blockchain) technology and global monetary network which can not be controlled by any one party, government or central bank.

The SEC also recently confirmed the cryptocurrency as a commodity (not a security).

Unlike fiat money, bitcoin has a limited supply of 21m coins. It is impossible for more bitcoin to be ‘printed’ once all the supply is available.

Therefore unlike fiat money, bitcoin is deflationary, not inflationary. As an investor, the money you allocate to bitcoin, over a longer term horizon, should go up in value.

The price predictions for bitcoin vary from $250,000 to $1m++ by 2030.

Despite its volatility, bitcoin is increasingly regarded as ‘sound money’ and a store of value by retail investors and institutions alike.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust would become the first approved ETF…

…in the U.S. to track the price of bitcoin. It has been 10 years since the first filing for a spot bitcoin ETF (and every application has been rejected).

BlackRock’s filing comes a week after the SEC sued Coinbase, its crypto custody partner, for violating securities laws.

It is believed that BlackRock’s commitment to Coinbase is almost as important as its commitment to bitcoin in the long term.

What next?

* Read the Bitcoin White Paper

* Read The Bitcoin Standard

* Check out crypto exchanges including Coinbase and Kraken.

Disclaimer: I invest in BTC, ETH, and other altcoins. Please do your own research. This article is for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice.

News in Brief

Financial news

* US Federal Reserve opts not to raise interest rates after more than a year of increases as widely expected, but signals the break may be temporary. Fed's new '23 dot implies two more 25bp hikes this year.

* ECB's Christine Lagarde says ECB is 'very likely' to raise rates in July. The markets are pricing in a 114% probability of a July increase.

* ECB: Inflation projected to remain too high for too long. Increases inflation forecast for each of the next three years by 0.1ppt. Sees 2023 inflation now at 5.4%, 2024 at 3%, and 2025 inflation at 2.2%.

* ECB raises all rates by 25bps as expected. Depo Rate to 3.50%, highest since 2001. Main Refi to 4%, highest since 2008.

* UK GDP expanded by 0.2% in April, driven by the services sector as consumer-focused companies such as pubs and bars saw more business.

* Expectations that UK interest rates will keep climbing to fight inflation have lifted sterling to $1.269 against the dollar, the highest level since April 2022.

* Bank of America (BoA) Fund Manager Survey shows the lowest cash level (5.1%) since Jan'22 BUT asset allocator conviction confined to tech & IG bonds. Allocation to stocks at 5 month lows; so risk asset "pain trade" still up.

* Apple closes at record in latest sign of Big Tech’s dominance. The stock rose 1.6% to $183.79, bringing its year-to-date gain to 41%. This is Apple’s first closing high since January 2022. Stock nears a $3tn valuation following 2023’s surge.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Cryptocurrencies climb to end the week as investors digest BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF plans. Bitcoin is trading higher at $26,500+, while ether is up at $1,700+.

* Elon Musk denies owning Dogecoin stash linked to insider trading. Musk’s lawyer says the claim that the Tesla CEO is secretly a DOGE whale is “without basis.”

* Shiba Inu (SHIB), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies supported by BitPay are accepted as payments for merchandise of the British professional basketball club, the London Lions.

Read more on U.Today https://u.today/shib-btc-eth-accepted-by-this-british-professional-basketball-club-details

* BlackRock, which manages $9.5 trillion in assets, rocked the crypto world when it applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Though the product is technically a trust, it’s functionally the same as an ETF, experts say. But this comes at a strange time, as the SEC has ‘cracked down’ on crypto recently.

* Coinbase slams 'evasive response' from SEC to court order. The SEC was told to respond to a Coinbase petition, but its response was noncommittal.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Undocumented women earn less than everyone else

* Stop the sexism and give dads six weeks paid paternity leave

* Fortune 500 companies delivered a new board diversity record, but it's not enough

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com