Th Atlantic has a piece that tiktokkers should pay attention to. Apparently “influencers “ are using terms such as “Ima Afterpay that s%#@,” says “the creator behind All Things Naisa on TikTok.” The logic flows through, Banks are bad, credit cards are bad and interest is really bad. So a zero % after pay, klarna etc sounds really good in this storyline. Relevance to Bankwatch And it is a fictional story. The interest is baked into the price of course, as it always is with zero %. But that story is lost on enough under 30’s to provide growth until … Continue reading Buy Now Pay Later is a (small) bubble which will catch social media addicts

AI is at a funny stage. Everyone is talking about it and many are claiming to have it deployed in their App architecture. We seem to have jumped from concept – Remember AI beating a Korean champion at GO in 2018. At the time AI was predicted to become somewhat mainstream in 10 – 20 years. Here are some news snippets from last few days with my early conclusion following. … #AI #MicrosoftAI #openAI Here we are only 5 years later with OpenAI (Peter Thiel and Elon Musk) and we are already seeing predictable AI promotion along with doubts, such … Continue reading Microsoft considering significant additional investment in AI ChatGPT

More signs of shifting policy in China. This “wolf warrior” was a common spokesperson on international news aggressively verbally attacking the West. https://www.ft.com/content/63b27809-bc87-43a2-9f90-400313fdcc12 One of China’s most prominent “wolf warrior” diplomats has been moved to an obscure department, in an unusual transfer for an official who had seemed to be one of the foreign ministry’s highest flyers. Zhao Lijian was no longer listed on the ministry’s website on Monday as one of its official spokespersons and instead appeared as one of three deputy directors for boundary and ocean affairs. Relevance to Bankwatch It is too easy to see the end … Continue reading One of China’s most prominent “wolf warrior” diplomats sidelined

India’s central bank governor has expressed concern over growing debt distress among regional trade partners and said he is alert to possible risks to his country’s economy from a global slowdown Shaktikanta Das said in an interview with the Financial Times Das declined to specify which countries he meant but Sri Lanka last year became Asia’s first country in decades to default. Meanwhile Pakistan, India’s nuclear-armed western neighbour and traditional foe, is down to $5.6bn of foreign exchange reserves, equivalent to about one month’s imports. Bangladesh’s export-led economy has been hit by slower demand, rising fuel prices and power cuts, … Continue reading India’s central bank governor warns of South Asian debt distress

FP has a longer piece on new competitors chasing to fill the space when they assume Twitter fails. It is behind a paywall but here follows some snippets, followed by a co-incidental piece at WSJ concerning #elonmusk preparations for his jury trial for Securities and Exchange Commission charges relating to Twitter stock manipulation, on Twitter.; thats a double whammy of stock manipulation. https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/05/twitter-collapse-social-media-musk-koo-mastodon/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-seeks-to-move-trial-over-tesla-tweets-saying-san-francisco-jurors-are-biased-11673130952?mod=followtesla Indian Startup Koo sounds like a duplicated effort to replace Twitter with much of the built in in efficiencies which will hinder scale much as experienced by Twitter and Facebook: FP reports Twitter is filled with … Continue reading Foreign Policy and WSJ on Twitter competition and owner securities fraud accusations