Weekend Update #019
Welcome to Blue Room's Weekend Update. Each week, we're sharing what companies we're researching and the what, the who and the how that we think makes the companies interesting and unique. This roundup is brought to you weekly by a group of interns, creative minds, artists and investors who believe that through best in class investing along with the democratization of financial education we can do great things together. Enjoy, Explore and Share.
Valentines’ Day FESTIVITIES Started Early
This week the dating app, Bumble Inc., IPO'd Thursday, jumping as high as $79 per share — 85% above its initial offering price of $43. The company, which most notably empowers women within the app by allowing them to make the first move and initiate the conversation, is also breaking barriers in the business world with an executive board and management team that is comprised of 73% and 54% women, respectively. The company hopes to bring awareness to the lack of diversity within large corporations as well as the lack of access venture funding for women entrepreneurs. Check out the team's investment bullpen meeting where we discuss Bumble's IPO and the intricacies of the app itself.
STOCK OVERVIEW
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discovers, develops, and commercializes products that fight eye disease, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and inflammation.
STOCK OVERVIEW
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) is a biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious diseases. Vertex is primarily recognized for the development and commercialization of therapies treating cystic fibrosis, but they are currently in clinical development for seven disease areas spanning multiple modalities, including small molecules, gene-editing and cell therapy.
ON FEBRUARY 13TH NATHANIEL RATELIFF MAKES HIS SNL DEBUT
Chapter Three
(of Three)
On the cold New York City night of November 2, 2015 Saturday Night Live music producer Lindsay Shookus came to see the buzz band from Denver, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, at their sold out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Jon Hamm and Aziz Ansari came with Shookus. The band, manager, publicists were all encouraged and hopeful that an offer to play the legendary show might soon be forthcoming. It would be over five years until the offer finally came.
After the break out cycle of the debut album, Nathaniel and the band headed back to Richard Swift to produce the follow up album ‘Tearing at the Seams’. The highly lauded album led them back out on the road after only three months away from touring. A solid eighteen-month tour followed the March 9, 2018 release. The band toured the globe and played Fallon, Colbert, Kimmel and tv shows around the world. Yet SNL still alluded the band, the thought being they were always close to getting an offer. Collaborations with artists such as John Prine, Mavis Staples, Willie Nelson and more were occurring at a regular pace. The recordings benefitted his foundation, The Marigold Project which granted out 100% of the proceeds. The band led rallies for women’s rights and gun violence prevention.
In 2019 Rateliff decided to record a solo record, a return to his sound before the Night Sweats. He planned to make the record with his dear friend and trusted collaborator Richard Swift but Richard tragically passed away in the summer of 2018. Rateliff went back to Richard’s studio in Oregon with friends and co-producers Pat Meese and James Barone to start the record. Richard was not there in person but his spirit was all over the record. ’And Its Still Alright’ was released on Valentine’s Day 2020. On March 2 the nine-month tour started with a six-piece band and four-piece string section ready to roll. On March 12, 2020 around midday the tour was cancelled and the band flew home from New York. The rest of the 52 dates were cancelled.
Not getting to tour the brand-new record and take Nathaniel’s singer songwriter concert out to the large audiences that had sold out every show on the tour was a blow. Nathaniel and the band were back in Denver to adapt to life in a pandemic. Houses were patched up, tomato seeds were planted, a Marigold Project cookbook was made, a holiday tune was written and recorded with Elle King and time with loved ones was cherished. Making the best of the situation, the ten-piece band played a week at Red Rocks to 175 people a night in September. One night was streamed around the world and recorded for a live album. Nathaniel joined many virtual on-line concerts to raise money. Rateliff even had a sandwich named after him at his beloved Snarfs deli and he dedicated the proceeds to benefit hunger related issues.
And then a call came from film director Fisher Stevens. Justin Timberlake wanted Nathaniel to write a song for the ending of his new film, ‘Palmer’. Timberlake and Nathaniel spoke about the theme of the movie and Timberlake’s character. From that conversation the moving song “Redemption” was born. The publicist shared the movie, and song with the SNL team and the hook was set. Joseph Pope, Nate Meese, Luke Mossman, Mark Shusterman, Nathaniel Rateliff, Daniel Hardaway and Jeff Dazey would be heading to New York. A band of brothers that stuck together through lean times and grew together got their offer to come play on the legendary SNL stage. Nathaniel will perform “Redemption” and a deep track from the Night Sweats’ catalog. It is a long journey from rural Missouri and it is a journey taken with each step being guided by love, hard work, and passion.
ON LOSING RICHARD SWIFT:
I just continue to move forward. I feel like grief is one of those things that sometimes you carry with you. But it’s really about how it influences your life. It can be a good thing or a negative thing. So grief and loss are things I carry with me. Pretty frequently, I’m struck with a memory of [Swift] and it steals my breath. But what an amazing experience to love someone so much that when you lose them, they still impact your life. They impact your days and your nights even though they’re not here. So in order to experience that kind of love, I think you have to experience that kind of grief as well. – Nathaniel Rateliff
( THANK YOU FOR TUNING IN )
PART TWO
“At the end of their lives, stars with ten times the mass of our sun explode as so-called supernovae. In the process, elements like silver are either hurled out into the universe or are produced in the first place.” (1)
This is what Dr. Camilla Hansen of Heidelberg University’s Centre for Astronomy (ZAH) found during her and her team’s investigations into astronomy and astrophysics and subsequently described in a report published on September 6, 2012. Further, “during a supernova, silver takes shape in an entirely different fusion process from that in which gold forms, indicating that the two elements must materialize from stars of different masses.” More specifically, they found that less massive stars produce silver (and palladium), while larger-mass stars produce gold, in an entirely different type of nuclear fusion called the weak r-process. (2)
This helps explain Earth’s crust ratio, estimated to be about 17.5:1 (3), and represents the amount of ounces of silver in Earth for every ounce of gold (Sir Isaac Newton would go on to set the ratio at 15.5:1 earling in the 18th century)(4). Compare this to the mining ratio of 8:1, which is the number of ounces of silver mined for every ounce of gold. Or consider everyone’s favorite, the gold:silver ratio, which is the number of ounces of silver an ounce of gold can buy – as I write this, this ratio is 67.5:1.
Silver was first mined around the year 3000 BC – about 5 millenia ago – in Anatolia (present-day Greece and Turkey). The primitive method of refining silver, cupellation, consisted of heating the silver ore and blowing air over it which oxidizes metals like lead and copper causing them to separate from silver.(5) The off-white metal would later be used as a source of currency, with the Hammurabi, King of Babylon, even implementing a maximum rate of interest of 20% on silver loans.(6) He also dictated that every loan in Babylon had to be witnessed by a public official and recorded in a written contract, which is not dissimilar to the consensus algorithms found in “blockchain technology” which rely on full nodes that enforce rules to validate transactions(7) – based on this, one could argue Hammurabi is the true father of blockchain, but I digress.
Ancient Anatolian Silver Idol, $7,500; Bronze Age, Mid- to Late-3rd millennium BC; phoenixancientart.com (8)
During the 16th century, it didn’t take long for the people of the Iberian Peninsula to colonize the Americas — ostensibly to convert the indigenous people to Christianity - but in reality, to plunder the mountains of Mayan gold that was there for the taking. In Mexico, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs between 1519 and 1521. About a decade later, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas in Peru. The latter, with a crew of sixty horsemen and ninety foot soldiers, was eventually able to subjugate the Andean empire consisting of between 5 to 10 million, thanks to the invisible weapon they unwittingly brought with them — smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus in addition to the horses, guns and crossbows that were far superior to anything in the Incan armory.
The center of silver production shifted to the open-pit mines of Lavrion in Greece, about 50 miles south of Athens around 1200 BC, around the commencement of the Dark Ages — shortly after the “golden age” of the Minoan-Mycenean era which Homer recalled in his works Odyssey and Iliad. Because silver ore generally contains lead, free men didn’t want to sustain lead poisoning which led to 20,000 slaves being forced to work in the mines during their existence.
In 650 BC, money was first coined by the Lydians in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey, which helped facilitate trade with neighboring empires. The coins were made of electrum — a naturally-occurring alloy of gold and silver that was readily available in the area.(9)
It is estimated that organized mining did not start in earnest until the middle of the 8th century BC and reached its peak around 480 BC(10), when Athens staved off invading Persian forces through their victory of the Battle at Salamis(11). The ships that helped the Greeks win this battle were paid for with silver from the Lavrion mines, which was originally being distributed as an annual dividend to the Athenians but was diverted to military use at the insistence of General Themistokles(12). The defeat of Xerxes and the Persians resulted in the reconstruction of Athens and its birth as a center of culture and science.
By 100 AD, as the Roman Empire expanded across Europe, Spanish mines became a major source of the metal and helped facilitate trade even further along the Asian spice routes.(13) To make it easier to export, silver was hammered into thin sheets called plattum argentum, which was later shortened to the modern Spanish word for silver - plata. Technological advances in silver mining and refining led to growth in silver production through the 16th century, up until Columbus reached “the New World” in 1492. In the following three centuries, 58% of silver production would occur in Mexico, Bolivia and Peru as Spain colonized and exerted its power across the present-day southern United States, Central America and South America.
Leadville, Colorado, 1879
In 1878, the United States Congress passed the Bland–Allison Act (Grand Bland Plan of 1878) which required the US Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars had the effect of creating dramatically increasing demand for silver, creating upward pressure on prices(14). Shortly thereafter the Colorado Silver Boom began in 1879 with the discovery of silver in the town of Leadville. Further technological innovation and new discoveries led to the production of nearly 120 million ounces annually in the final quarter of the 19th century. In the early 1900s, new mining techniques including steam-assisted drilling, mine dewatering, and improvements in hauling, helped propel global silver production to 190 million ounces annually.
Today, according to The Silver Institute, global silver supply in 2020 was estimated to register at 978.1 million ounces, compared to estimated demand of 963.4 million ounces (representing an “excess” of 1.5%). In recent interviews, Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic Silver,, cited some interesting facts regarding the supply-demand outlook for the metal going-forward. The most critical point Mr. Neumeyer made was with regard to silver’s importance for industrial use, particularly as a component of solar panels, electronics such as computers and cell phones, and now electric vehicles (EVs)(15). As President Biden pursues his green energy plan, beginning with converting the government vehicle fleet from ICE (internal combustion engines) to EV, demand for the metal will only increase. Governments all over the world are planning to do the same thing within the next few decades. There are 1.4 billion vehicles on Earth; in 2019, 94 million cars were manufactured worldwide. Of those 94 million, only 4 million were electric cars (4.2%). Each battery electric vehicle requires about 0.88 to 1.7 ounces of silver. This translates to about 121 million ounces of additional demand should auto manufacturing convert fully to EVs, on top of existing industrial uses for silver, including its use as a conductor of electricity, facilitator of photovoltaic (solar) energy, and provider of antibacterial properties and uses.
Supply has been dropping for four years now, due in part to low silver prices and resulting lack of capital expenditure on new mining projects, all factors that point to a tight silver market. A sudden demand shock of, say, 10%, would result in a dramatic swing in silver prices, like the one we saw early last week, with retail silver reaching $35 per ounce over the preceding weekend. I misspoke last week by saying the silver ETF SLV bought physical bullion to offset the massive inflows it was experiencing (Friday, January 29th, alone, saw $1 billion of inflows). They were actually buying “paper silver” which comes in the form of futures contracts, which banks such as JP Morgan Chase are on the other (short) side of. The spot price of silver has since come down, but it appears to be a sign of things to come.
The gold silver ratio reached 85:1 around the third quarter of 2020 and is now hovering around 67:1, and is poised to come down even lower as ever-increasing industrial demand comes to the fore. It is only a matter of time before the true value of silver is realized (Mr. Neumeyer estimates at least $100 per ounce) and when that time comes, look out above.
1 https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/presse/news2012/pm20120906_silber_en.html
2 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/9/120907-silver-gold-star-explosions-supernovae-science-hansen/#close
3 http://about.ag/MiningAndGoldSilverRatios.htm
4 https://www.businessinsider.com/gold-to-silver-ratio-through-history-2011-3
5 Livescience.com; Facts About Silver
6 https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/research/a-brief-history-of-world-credit-interest-rates/3000-b-c-500-a-d-the-ancient-economy/
7 https://nodes.com/
8 https://www.e-tiquities.com/gallery/ancient-anatolian-silver-idol-in-the-form-of-a-stylized-female-figure
9 https://blog.providentmetals.com/the-shining-history-of-silver.htm#.YCWaD2hKgkE
10 https://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/Journal/MHJ-v3-1996-Economopoulos.pdf
11 https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2018/12/17/how-the-mines-of-laurion-saved-greece-and-by-extension-made-western-civilization-possible/?sh=67b38e955dae
12 https://www.mindat.org/article.php/2944/The+Mines+and+Minerals+of+Lavrion+-+Ancient+Mining+History
13 https://www.silverinstitute.org/silver-mining-history/
14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bland%E2%80%93Allison_Act
15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=351kbD4N5Ik
2021 02 11 Blue Room Meeting #038
Thursday
February 11, 2021
NOON MST BLUE ROOM
MEETING NUMBER
Thirty Eight
__________ __________
Music /
Valentine’s Day Approaches
P L E A S E E N J O Y T H E
—WEEKLY—
company updates
from the BR intern team.
AIDAN FETTERLY
Ticker: APPL
Name: Apple, Inc.
Number of Shares Outstanding: 16.94B*
Market Capitalization: $2.29T*
Apple, Inc. (AAPL) is a consumer electronics company that holds the title of largest company by market capitalization in the world. Headlined by a product line that features the iPhone, iPad, Mac and AirPod devices as well as a software selection that includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, and the App Store, the blue-chip equity continues to adapt and grow while maintaining its staple position in the technology industry. The company, located in Cupertino, California, recently announced its plans to develop its own line of electric vehicles, as well as its current partnership with the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to develop its new M1 chips as well as augmented reality headgear. In their most recent earnings report, released on January 27, AAPL announced its most profitable quarter ever – aided by the release of the new, 5G iPhone 12 in October – with the company generating $28.76B in profit and beating net income estimates by nearly 20%.
*As of market close, 2/11
Ticker: MRK
Name: Merck & Co., Inc.
Number of Shares Outstanding: 2.53B*
Market Capitalization: $189.02B
Merck & Co., Inc. is a pharmaceutical company located in Kenilworth, New Jersey. The fourth-largest drug manufacturer by revenue, Merck is an industry titan with more than 125 years of experience in medical development. Focusing on oncology, immunology and infectious disease treatment, Merck is dedicated to solving the world's most challenging health problems in the pursuit of improving lives. This December, MRK announced its acquisition of OncoImmune, a biopharmaceutical company developing their own COVID-19 vaccine. Most recently, on February 4, Merck reported year-over-year earnings and revenue growth of 13.7% and 6% respectively, but failed to meet analyst expectations. Shares have since fallen 2.44% since their earnings call. Further, CEO Ken Frazier announced he will be retiring later this year, ending a tenure in the position that spanned more than 10 years. Current Vice President, Global Health Services and CFO, Robert M. Davis, has been unanimously elected to succeed Frazier.
*As of market close, 2/11
Ticker: TTWO
Name: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Number of Shares Outstanding: 115,18M*
Market Capitalization: $22.70B*
Headquartered in New York, New York, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO) serves as one of the three main pillars of the video game industry, along with competitors Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. Known for their staple action-adventure titles Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, along with their annually released NBA 2K series, Take-Two has seen its market price flourish under stay-at-home orders, with the stock rising from a low of $105.27 last February to an all-time, intraday high of $214.91 this past Monday, February 8. That evening, TTWO released strong Q3 numbers that demonstrated a lucrative holiday season, with net bookings and net income beating analyst expectations by 34.4% and 40.1%, respectively. While the share price fell over 6% on February 9, seemingly from sell-off after analyst questions regarding the development pipeline were left unanswered, TTWO still holds strong potential as the company will continue to benefit off of the release of next-generation consoles and an ever-growing customer base of dedicated users.
*As of market close, 2/11
Claire McKenna
Ticker: CSGP
Name: CoStar Group, Inc.
Number of Shares Outstanding: 39.42M
Market Capitalization: 35.80
CoStar Group, Inc. is an industry leader in the technology and commercial property sector. CoStar’s five flagship brands including CoStar Suite, LoopNet,Apartments.com, BizBuySell, and LandsofAmerica. These brands are recognized in commercial real estate for producing reliable information and analytics as well as a user-friendly, online marketplace. The corporation is spearheaded by founder and CEO Andrew Florance, who aggressively pushes the company forward into new spaces, driving the business to innovate and earn higher revenues. In the past year, CoStar expanded its reach through the acquisition of Ten-X, an online auctioning platform, allowing the company to develop their own auction platform for commercial real estate. Looking forward, the company hopes that the acquisition will increase traffic on their websites at least fortyfold and attract more bidders across the world. The company also hopes the acquisition will mitigate the cyclicality of the business model, which will hopefully lead to greater stability in earnings per quarter.
Ticker: DASH
Name: DoorDash
Number of Shares: 317.66 Million outstanding
Market Cap: 67.74 Billion
DoorDash’s Origin. The story of DoorDash is in essence the American Dream. DoorDash was founded in a dorm room at Stanford University. Four students, Even Moore, Andy Fang, Stanley Tang, and Tony Xu, the current CEO, of the company spearheaded the idea. Back in 2013 DoorDash was known as Palo Alto Delivery and it was primarily focused on serving the Silicon Valley area. However those days are long gone as the company is now DoorDash Inc., and delivers in areas of the United States, Canada, Australia, and soon to be Japan. Since the company's inception, the founders knew it was destined for great things. After an initial investment of $130,000 the company was up and running. However the trail to the top of the food delivery world was a long and windy road full of obstacles. DoorDash had to take on adversaries of Grubhub and UberEats that had larger market shares then them. This did not deter the company, but only strength there resolved to overcome these challenges. In 2018 DoorDash surpassed Uber Eats for second in market share. Not long after in March of 2019 the company overtook grubhub in order to become the largest third-party delivery platform. This domination of the industry could not have come at a better time. Each of the quarters leading up to Q2 of 2020 had shown growth of 10-20% in sales. However In the spring of 2020, sales went through the rough and more than doubled. The company hopes to continue this upward momentum and is scheduled for an earnings call on February, 25th.
Lexi Linafelter
Lexi Linafelter
Ticker: PYPL
Name: PayPal Holdings Inc.
Number of Shares Outstanding: 1.17B
Market Capitalization: $333.82B
PayPal Holdings Inc. is an international financial technology and payment processing company headquartered in San Jose, California. Their payment solutions allow customers to both send and receive payments through a global, two-sided network that connects merchants and consumers with 305 million active accounts across more than 200 markets. PayPal is committed to secure, timely and easy-to-use payment services, and operates through multiple subsidiaries including Gopay, Braintree (Venmo), Xoom, Hyperwallet, Simility, CyActive, FraudSciences and Honey to foster a positive consumer and merchant experience. PayPal primarily earns revenues through charging fees for completing payment transitions and other payment-related services that are typically based on the volume of activity on the Payments Platform.
PayPal reported earnings for the fourth quarter and full-year of 2020 on February 3, 2021.
Hassan Ali
Ticker: CRM
Name: Salesforce
Number of Shares Outstanding: 917.73M
Market Cap: $221.39B
Salesforce is a software-as-a-service company based in San Francisco, California, and is the leader in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) space with a market share of nearly 20%, more than double its closest competitor SAP at 8%. As businesses have been increasingly looking to digitize their business models, accelerated by the pandemic, Salesforce looks to give businesses an end-to-end software that unifies their sales, marketing and customer service teams all interfaced on one platform. Generating over 20% year-over-year revenue growth for the past decade, Salesforce looks to expand their reach in the CRM market by making moves, such as the acquisition of Slack in December 2020, that allow it to be a one-stop shop for all businesses looking to move their workflow to the cloud.
Sarah Korb
Ticker: SDGR
Name: Schrödinger
Number of Shares Outstanding: 56.32M
Market Cap: $7.66B
Schrödinger: Company Update. As we come to the midpoint of February, Schrödinger is reaching new milestones. Headquartered in New York City, Schrödinger inc. develops and licenses chemical simulation software for drug discovery, material science, and academic use, along with their own internal drug discovery operations. This past week, their market price continually reached all-time highs since their initial IPO in February 2020, bringing their market capitalization safely above $7 billion USD. As their market price rides an upward momentum into the 3-digit range, it is a stark contrast to its 10% fall on January 27th, an expected stumble in the wake of the GameStop short squeeze. However, a quick recovery and a powerful upwards trajectory make Schrödinger’s future look bright; this is compounded with a company overview released in December 2020, which revealed that 3 out of 5 wholly-owned internal drug discovery programs have progressed to late-stage discovery, and plans for IND filings in 2021 are on track. As Schrödinger turns its focus to using its own software to supplement its own drug-discovery ventures, only time will tell what an impact it will make in the realm of biopharmaceuticals.
Ticker: ULTA
Name: Ulta Beauty, Inc.
Ulta Beauty, Inc. (ULTA), the nation's largest beauty retailer, offers more than 25,000 products from approximately 500 well-established and emerging beauty brands across cosmetics, fragrance, skin care products, hair care products, and salon services. Ulta has recently announced their commitment to underrepresented voices, committing to doubling the number of Black-owned brands in assortment (increasing this amount to a prospective 36 Black-owned brands) and dedicating at least $24 million to inclusivity endeavors. Spearheading this company through this new initiative is CEO Mary Dillon, whose past effort to restructure company culture falls directly in line with this new push for social responsibility; she states “we have a responsibility to inspire positive change and drive greater diversity, inclusivity and equity.” Past analysis shows that Ulta’s revenue has a positive correlation with the holiday seasons; coming off of an expected holiday high, Ulta entered its lowest market values in March of 2020. However, this new year shows steady growth, which, compounded with Ulta’s push for inclusivity in their brands, may continue through March of 2021.
As a child of first generation immigrants, financial literacy is something I had to diligently chase. While my parents are extremely knowledgeable and wise in diverse areas, they are limited in their financial knowledge and events in the broader business industry. Growing up, my limited understanding never bothered me — a prime demonstration of the “ignorance is bliss” concept. However, my bubble burst when I left for college. Throughout campus, finance jargon I did not understand was being thrown around left and right. Talk about the latest stocks that had skyrocketed overnight were all the buzz. Overhearing these conversations unintentionally exposed me to the finance world and I became determined to unlock the wealth of knowledge that was seemingly foreign to me. Unfortunately, jumping into the industry was not an easy feat and I struggled to navigate through dense articles to finally stumble across beginner friendly resources. The challenges I experienced are not unique to myself, and for people who desire to increase their financial literacy, knowing where to start is often the toughest hurdle to overcome.
Thus, with this in mind, I felt inspired to share the business newsletters, subscriptions, and podcasts that have been instrumental in shaping my personal financial awareness.
1.Morning Brew
Overall: 5/5
Entertainment value: 5/5
Usefulness as a daily news source: 5/5
Usefulness as a resource in general: 5/5
My overview: Morning Brew is a daily newsletter subscription designed for young business professionals. Each morning, a free email newsletter is delivered to your inbox. The newsletter includes a stock market recap along with short briefs on the most important business and tech news. Not only is the content diversified and the perfect mix of Wall Street essentials, but Morning Brew takes it the extra mile with its format. Each news brief contains a “Bottom Line” segment that highlights the key takeaways. The idea is to provide easily digestible information that readers can process when drinking their morning coffee. In fact, this concept serves as the inspiration behind Morning Brew’s logo being a cup of coffee. Additionally, the newsletter conveys information in an entertaining manner because it is written in a witty tone and it includes fun images throughout the paper. Factoring in the free price, I think Morning Brew is a great news source for anyone desiring to improve their financial knowledge and stay up to date with current events.
2. Planet Money
Overall: 4/5
Entertainment value: 5/5
Usefulness as a daily news source: 3/5
Usefulness as a resource in general: 4/5
My overview: Planet Money is an American podcast and blog produced by NPR. Each episode is between 20 to 30 minutes long and aims to convey digestible economic material by connecting the concepts to relevant real-world scenarios. Oftentimes, guest speakers are brought in to provide personal accounts and new perspectives. Some of the latest podcast topics include: Robinhood halting trading, Gamestop, and Bitcoin. However, Planet Money also covers more niche topics such as the economic effects of prison fees, making stadium food cheaper, and storing art in freeports (warehouses). The broad topic coverage and storytelling narrative style makes this podcast an entertaining resource to simultaneously strengthen your understanding of economics while keeping up to date with current events.The only downside is that new episodes are released biweekly so Planet Money is not the ideal daily news source.
3. The Wall Street Journal
Overall: 4.5/5
Entertainment value: 3/5
Usefulness as a daily news source: 5/5
Usefulness as a resource in general: 5/5
My overview: The Wall Street Journal serves as the “gold standard” for a business newspaper. It is one of the most-read newsletters in the U.S and is widely respected for not conveying heavy biases. It contains important stories relating to major topics like U.S news, world news, business, politics, tech, and the markets. The Wall Street Journal is the most dense and rich resource out of Morning Brew and Planet Money, and the information is relayed in a more formal manner, resulting in a lower entertainment value score. However, this has its benefits since it enables a more in-depth understanding of economics and current events. I enjoy utilizing the WSJ app and checking it once a day to skim the front page to see if any headlines peak my interest. Browsing in this manner primes me for a deeper read on stories that personally appeal to me, and this aspect distinguishes The Wall Street Journal from platforms that focus on providing higher level overviews, such as Morning Brew and Planet Money.
Last but not least, a great resource is the one which you are reading right now! Blue Room Newsletter consolidates creative and educational articles written by our talented team into a weekly masterpiece. We craft it in a way that offers finance knowledge and insight while still remaining accessible to younger audiences.
There are plentiful more great resources out there but these are the ones that have etched out a special place in my routine as I strive to become more financially literate. In many more ways than one, financial education is more valuable than money.
Wednesday, we hosted Jon Cherry, who runs the Global Options Trading business for Northern Trust of Chicago. Jon is a friend of Blue Room and he graciously joined us for a lively hour of Q&A. You can watch our meeting here.
YOU SAID YOU WOULD RATHER:
A) Be a Rockette for the big holiday performance:
5%
B) Go to the Kentucky Derby!!!!
95%
One of our favorite meetings
was when Blue Room ART was conceived,
as well as the idea of BLUE ROOM IMPACT.
Join us here and watch the meeting that transpired.
The exhibition features recent work and several new commissions by more than 30 artists and organizations. Check out our stories and the MCA Denver website to meet the artists in the exhibition, take a look at their work, listen to the artists' commentary about their art, learn what MCA programs they are involved in, and dive deeper into the exhibition.
by Nina Sohn
Blue Room Co-founder & Togetherism Leader
Three Cheers for Citizen Philanthropy
Here at Blue Room, impact investing and philanthropy are pillars of our ethos. As we gain footing as a new company, we look for inspiration from other organizations that have done compelling work in these realms.
I don’t recall how I first discovered Donors Choose, but I was captivated by the story of its genesis and the value of its mission.
As a recent Yale graduate, Donors Choose founder Charles Best was teaching high school in the Bronx in the year 2000. Wanting his students to read “Little House on the Prairie”, Best was forced to photocopy chapters from the book, which he had purchased himself. It was brutally obvious to him that all the teachers at his school were hamstrung by limited resources, and he conjured up a genius solution to leverage ‘citizen philanthropy’.
Best convinced a few of his co-teachers to write ‘mini-grants’ requesting funds for a specific project or supply they desired for their classrooms. He then posted their projects on a fledgling website he created called ‘Donors Choose’. Though skeptical, a few of his fellow teachers did write project proposals, which Best secretly funded himself.
The platform grew from there: Fast forward twenty years years, and Donors Choose has funded over 1.7 million project grants at public schools all across the country, totalling nearly four hundred million dollars. The website allows ‘citizen philanthropists’ to cull through thousands of grant requests posted by public school teachers nationwide. Donors can curate search criteria with great specificity: looking for a 3rd grade science teacher in Alabama with a school population that is 90% free and reduced lunch? Is music your jam? Stem for third graders?
My first experience with Donors Choose was with a project proposal made by a Harlem high school teacher who was trying to build a drum corp. He manifested on-line as classically dorky - gangly and awkward - but his enthusiasm for his students exploded through his description of what he hoped to create for them. He had collected drum sticks and was teaching the kids rhythm by having them ‘drum’ on the back of chairs. Even with these crude ‘instruments’, word of the drum corp had spread and he was desperate to retain interest and knew offering real drums would insure the success of the program.
I was one of many who donated to fund his project, and a few weeks later I received an ecstatic email from him, followed another week later by pictures of his students, with their shiny new drums and deliriously happy grins.
It was an excellent feeling: I was sucked into the joy of meaningfully experiencing the impact the donation had. I was hooked. I can still turn around a glum day with a quick perusal of the site, and a donation - even a small one - to a worthy teacher and group of kids.
In the perfect world, teachers would not want for anything they needed to create educational experiences for their kids. In the imperfect world in which we reside, I am honored to be a citizen philanthropist.
Listen to Charles Best talk about the founding of Donors Choose
Charles Best and Donors Choose
A recent interview with Charles Best
Make your own day - and that of a teacher and student. Even the tiniest contribution tips the scale.
10% OF ALL BLUE ROOM REVENUES GO DIRECTLY TO FUND OUR NON PROFIT TOGETHERISM.
WE CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING TOGETHER.