The Guardian (April 19)
“Ocean waves crashing on the world’s shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world’s industrial polluters, new research has found, raising concerns about environmental contamination and human exposure along coastlines.” Because PFAS “are powerful surfactants that concentrate on the surface of water, which helps explain why they move from the ocean to the air and atmosphere.” It’s likely that “the contaminated spray likely affects groundwater, surface water, vegetation, and agricultural products near coastlines that are far from industrial sources of PFAS.”
Tags: Air, Atmosphere, Coastlines, Environmental contamination, Exposure, Groundwater, Human, Industrial polluters, Ocean, PFAS, Research, Shores, Surfactants, Vegetation
South China Morning Post (May 25)
Several factors help explain “the outperformance of Japanese shares.” Improved corporate governance and the end of deflation are important, but “the explanation with the most resonance for investors is Japan’s role as a safe haven in an increasingly risky world. This has taken on added significance because of concerns about the deepening geopolitical rift between the US and China, as well as economic and regulatory risks in China itself.” Japan boasts “the only market in Asia big and liquid enough to offer an alternative to China while still providing exposure to the reopening of its economy.”
Tags: Big, China, Corporate governance, Deflation, Economic, Exposure, Factors, Geopolitical rift, Investors, Japan, Liquid, Outperformance, Regulatory risks, Reopening, Risky world, Safe haven, Shares, US
Financial Times (November 11)
The bankruptcy of “Sam Bankman-Fried’s business empire includes billions of dollars of illiquid venture capital investments… including exposure to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boring Company.” The giant sprawl of his “venture capital portfolio will add to the complexity of the insolvency proceedings, which itself includes more than 130 companies controlled by Bankman-Fried. FTX’s collapse is among the most dramatic failures in the crypto industry not just this year, but since the creation of bitcoin more than a decade ago.”
Tags: Bankman-Fried, Bankruptcy, Bitcoin more, Business empire, Complexity, Crypto, Exposure, Failure, FTX, Illiquid, Insolvency, Investments, Musk, SpaceX, Sprawl, VC
Professional Pensions (April 19)
“The response by pension schemes and other investors to the invasion was immediate and, in the days following Russia’s attack, a number of pension schemes announced they would reduce or sell all their holdings as soon as possible.” Exposure to Russia varied by scheme, but was low overall, at around “0.1% for many schemes, holdings that many managers have written down to zero.” All in all, the “market reaction to the crisis was surprisingly muted,” with fairly stable funding levels throughout the crisis.
Tags: Attack, Crisis, Exposure, Funding, Holdings, Immediate, Invasion, Investors, Market, Muted, Pension schemes, Reaction, Reduce, Russia, Sell, Stable, Zero
Reuters (February 27)
“International companies with exposure to Russia are girding for further Western sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.” Among the most exposed companies in Asia are Japan Tobacco, Marubeni, Mitsubishi Corporation, SBI Holdings, and Toyota.
Tags: Asia, Companies, Exposure, Girding, International, Invasion, Japan Tobacco, Marubeni, Mitsubishi Corporation, Moscow, Russia, SBI Holdings, Ukraine, Western sanctions
Washington Post (July 24)
“The cauldron is lit in Tokyo’s covid Olympics. Let’s hope it’s not a fuse.” Frankly, the IOC only has in place a “haphazard collection of rules.” The IOC president “is lying to 11,000 international athletes with differing immune status and levels of exposure who are gathered unsafely amid a pandemic.” There is no bubble. “The only bubble at the Tokyo Games is the spit bubble coming out of Thomas Bach’s mouth.”
Tags: Athletes, Bach, Bubble, Cauldron, Covid Olympics, Exposure, Fuse, Haphazard, Immune status, IOC, Lying, Pandemic, Tokyo, Tokyo Games, Unsafely
WARC (June 2)
“Sponsors that made a relatively sound bet on one of the major global sporting events could not have foreseen the pandemic. Now, with the games an increasingly controversial topic, sponsors are navigating negative public opinion.” As they “worry about the risks of sponsoring an event opposed by a majority of the country” and focus on avoiding negative exposure, some Olympic sponsors have given up on recouping their investments.
Tags: Controversial, Doubts, Exposure, Foreseen, Negative, Olympics, Pandemic, Public opinion, Risks, Sponsors, Sporting events, Worry
LA Times (December 19)
In its first climate risk assessment, CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund, “found that one-fifth of the fund’s public market investments were in sectors that have high exposure to climate change. Those include energy, materials and buildings, transportation, and agriculture, food and forestry.” The report by CalPERS, however, didn’t go into much detail because “less than half of the 10,000-plus companies in their portfolio voluntarily disclose information about their carbon emissions.”
Tags: Agriculture, Assessment, CalPERs, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Energy, Exposure, Forestry, Investments, Materials, Pension fund, Portfolio, Risk, Transportation, U.S., Voluntary disclosure
Los Angeles Times (April 27)
“BPA and BPS lurk in products all around us, notably in plastics, and research has shown that most people have trace amounts in their bodies. But that the millions of paper receipts consumers handle every day might be another—and significant—source of exposure is not well known.” This is one of the reasons California may get behind legislation to ban large retailers and banks from offering paper receipts by 2022.
Tags: Ban, Bank, BPA, BPS, California, Consumers, Exposure, Legislation, Paper receipts, Plastics, Retailers
Investment Week (January 22, 2014)
“Investors are better off looking away from the US for their developed market equity exposure,” according to Cazenove Capital multi-manager Marcus Brookes who argues that U.S. stocks have gotten pricey and, contrary to popular belief, many U.S. companies have increased their leverage. “In the face of the cheap markets of Europe and Japan, I would much rather put my clients’ capital there because if it does go wrong it is a cheaper market.”
Tags: Capital, Cazenove Capital, Companies, Developed countries, Equity, Europe, Exposure, Investors, Japan, Leverage, Marcus Brookes, Markets, Pricey, Stocks, U.S.
