Ambulance chasing has reached a whole new level
Jazz, Japan and coffee as usual.
Hi there,
I had the pleasure of going to Ronnie Scott’s on Friday night and boy did it take me back to my days as a double bassist in the Seagrave Stompers.
I was never completely comfortable with being a bassist. I was no John Entwistle, resolutely plucking away, happy to keep the show moving. I was more of a Flea, needing to do the odd backflip to prove I wasn’t boring.
One day I agreed to pivot from my peak noughties phase of bright red skinny jeans (in place of backflips presumably) and covers of JET to play double bass in the school jazz band. The fear was unimaginable. There I was with all these grade 8 trumpeters and some sheet music plonked in front of me which I could barely read. The surprise when we finished the first number and everyone was beaming at my performance remains with me to this day.
I learned an important life lesson that day - play in the right key, put your soul into it and for God's sake look like you know what you're doing and everything will be just fine.
All the jazz,
Hugo
Chief Bass Officer
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Japan is experiencing a dramatic increase in tourism 🇯🇵 - three million people went to Japan in March on holiday, up 11.6% from the same month in 2019. 663,000 of them came from South Korea. A weak Yen has helped this and whilst it’s a positive thing as a whole, as ever there is a big impact on locals including prices being driven up.
The big four continue to get in trouble with everyone 🧐 - they are being probed all over the shop with the focus this week being on their involvement in the Wirecard debacle (EY), exam cheating in the Netherlands (KPMG) and dodgy audits of Evergrande (PWC).
Value of AI called into question as big tech earnings approach 😑 - the stock market has been massively buoyed by the promise of AI but there is yet to be any real demonstrable progress. Microsoft is seen as the bellwether and given the fairly disappointing performance of Copilot so far, they are unlikely to have seen the subscriptions they would hope for.
The most expensive coffee in the UK is £265 ☕ - I’ve been known to get a large and now barely flinch when a coffee breaks the £4 mark but this is ridiculous. It can be bought in Mayfair, from specialist shop Shot. It is made from Japanese typica beans on the island of Okinawa. No wonder everyone’s going on holiday there, they’re clearly doing something right.
Hipgnosis majorly overstated the revenue from its fund 🎶 - they’re the ones who have been buying up the back catalogues of lots of artists, clearly under the impression that music makes loads of money. Well, it doesn’t make quite as much as they claimed, according to an independent advisor. The value of their portfolio was slashed by a quarter and they are being bought out by a competitor called Concord.
Netflix password crackdown leads to profits soaring 🔑 - it caused strife up and down the country as people (and often the person actually paying the bill) became locked out of their accounts. It has worked out pretty well for Netflix as they’ve added 9.3 million subscribers and seen their profits soar.
A quarter of children aged between five and seven have a smartphone 🤳 - it must be a tough one, particularly when one set of parents in a class don’t hold the line and get Milly an iPhone but this surely can’t be good. Even with an (allegedly) fully developed brain, I still have a pathetic attachment to my phone. How are you supposed to manage that when your six?
Russian economy to grow faster than all developed economies 🤔 - the IMF predicts it will grow 3.2% this year compared to 0.5% in the UK. Now you can’t take these predictions as gospel because economists famously cannot predict the future. It is however a clear statement that the Russian economy is doing just fine despite the swathes of sanctions they have been hit in light of the war in Ukraine.
Some funds are starting to invest in lawsuits 📈 - I think this might win the prize for the best example of late-stage capitalism this week. Funds such as Burford Capital will bankroll lawsuits they believe have a good chance of paying out for a chunk of the winnings. This happened last year when Burford supported a case against the Argentinian government over their nationalising of an oil company.
Zero-based budgeting has gone consumer 🪙 - it’s an accounting approach more generally associated with businesses but meticulous tracking of finances is a growing trend for individuals with several influencers such as Beth Fuller building a large following. I like the idea of giving “every pound a job”. It makes me think of lots of little gold coins marching off to work, lunchbox in hand.
Quote of the week
“I would say that jazz is my own language” - Amy Winehouse