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| The Big Idea | |||||
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What the heck is SWIFT? |
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The unfortunate fate of financial acronyms is that for most people, their meaning goes in one ear and out the other (shoutout to EBITDA, SPAC, ETF, and countless others). Such is the case with SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (say that 5 times fast). With Russia facing SWIFT sanctions, we did a little digging to go beyond the acronym and figure out why SWIFT matters, and what the sanctions actually mean. So, what does SWIFT do?The primary function of SWIFT is to serve as a messaging system that provides transaction instructions for international transfers among its members (AKA banks). Before SWIFT, when transferring funds internationally, banks needed to describe transactions manually — using sentences — which opened the door to human error and long processing times. SWIFT’s key innovation is the use of codes, which apply to both its members and transactions:
Its use of codes, along with the security of its platform, have made SWIFT the dominant network for global transaction communications. How big is SWIFT?In short, very. Per BBC, the SWIFT network:
This scale poses a problem for Russia. Cutting off its banks from SWIFT means banks will have to deal with each other directly, adding delays and costs to the country’s global transactions. This isn’t the 1st time sanctions have been imposedIn 2012, as part of sanctions due to its nuclear weapons program, Iran was booted from SWIFT. The total sanctions resulted in a 50% drop in oil revenue and a 30% decrease in foreign trade. The news of sanctions has already caused a sharp drop for the ruble, Russia’s local currency, and is figured to have wider implications down the line. For more: Check out this running Twitter thread from The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, who is tracking the economic fallout from Russia’s sanctions. |
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| SNIPPETS |
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Malls are becoming more experiential, offering entertainment like indoor skydiving, pickleball, and craft beer bars. #ecommerce-retail Green Germany: Germany’s goal is to achieve ~100% clean energy by 2035, proposing annual capacity additions of both wind and solar power. #clean-energy Nurse Alexa: Amazon and Teledoc have partnered to allow patients to seek nonemergency medical appointments via Alexa. #emerging-tech Meta says it found Russian attempts to spread misinformation and to hack profiles of Ukrainian journalists and military officials on Facebook and Instagram. #privacy Crypto exchange Binance refused to block Russian accounts despite requests from Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, saying it won’t “unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts.” #fintech-crypto Epic TikToks: Tiktokers can now make videos up to 10 minutes long! Previously, the platform introduced 3-minute videos. #big-tech |
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Visual: Selina Lee |
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The West Coast looks east for hiring |
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Working in tech outside of Silicon Valley is a trend that started pre-covid, but accelerated rapidly with it. At the start of 2019, 30% of the jobs for West Coast tech companies were listed outside of the region. That’s now 43%. You could say the big winners here are states that attracted lots of this talent like Texas and Virginia, but then again, rent in Austin was up ~25% last year. |
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| Opinion | |||||
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Morgan Housel’s 3 most important investing skills |
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The stock market’s been wild lately — plenty of high-profile tech stocks are down 50% or more in the last year. It hurts. And it’s a good time to focus on the few skills that truly matter over your lifetime as an investor. 3 stick out in my mind:
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| TRENDS |
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How Sahil Bloom grew a 500k Twitter followingThe business Twittersphere is a… particular kind of ballgame. But of course, the managing partner of SRB Ventures quickly established himself as a leading voice, proliferating to half-a-million followers in just 1.5 years. Trends distilled 100+ of his top tweets to deliver the savviest insights. Bloom’s top 3 Twitter growth hacks
We deliver niche market trends and round up community highlights weekly. For more on how to boom like Bloom… |
| Try Trends for $1 → |
| AROUND THE WEB |
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🏞️ On this day: In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill establishing Yellowstone as the 1st national park. 👖 That’s interesting: Researchers were impressed with a pair of fashionable pants, 3k+ years old and found on a mummified body near Turfan, China. 🤓 Useful: What’s burn rate? What’s CAC? What’s non-participating preferred stock? You’ll find out in this glossary of 40 key terms for your VC meetings. 👀 How to: This article examines what makes writing more readable, plus offers examples of how to translate text for maximum accessibility. 🎸 Cure boredom: Here Before a Million is a streaming site for music videos that have less than 1m views on YouTube. |
| Tweet of the Day |
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The power of SWIFT in action. (Source: Twitter) |
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