Things Have Changed

In the previous episodes, we’ve chatted about currencies and how cash was increasingly playing a smaller role, even in fast growing countries like China & India! The disruptor, that helped transition countries into cashless economies: Credit Cards and Debit Cards.

In 2021, transactions on these plastic cards hit $6.7 TRILLION USD. Like many other technology industries, COVID helped accelerate the shift from cash to cashless. For the average American, more than half of their transactions were done using a credit or debit card!

My first thought on the largest benefactor is the banking industry but there is an even larger player in this field that caught our attention... Payment processing companies like VISA surpassed JP Morgan Chase as the biggest financial services company in America in 2020, boasting operating margins of up to 65%.
Today, on Things Have Changed, we’re going to tackle a question of: How did VISA become the most valuable payment card company in the world?
Helpful Links:

Why 2021 Was Crypto's Breakthrough Year

Things Have Changed

01/24/22 • 22 min

2021 was a breakthrough year for crypto assets

We’ve seen Bitcoin hit multiple new all-time high prices and more institutional buy-in from major companies. Coinbase went public. Even the U.S. government has increasingly expressed interest in new regulations for cryptocurrency.
All the while, people’s interest in crypto has skyrocketed: it’s a hot topic not only among investors but in popular culture too, thanks to everyone from long-standing investors like Elon Musk to that kid from your high school on Facebook.

So what changed?
“Productization” of crypto

Crypto is a much larger ecosystem that goes beyond Bitcoin as a “store of value”, which has been the prevailing crypto-ownership narrative.
With decentralized finance or DeFi, for example, a user may transact, borrow, or lend using an interface that is increasingly closer to that of a traditional banking app. The industry is on its way to provide user-friendly products from base layer complexities.

We’re seeing real use cases and adoption of blockchain beyond mere price speculation as blockchain technology is used to disrupt multiple industries. What's been fascinating to see is the adoption in Developing countries. In a study done by Blockchain Analysis company Chainalysis, Worldwide Adoption of crypto Jumps Over 880% with huge uptick in Cryptocurrency Usage in Emerging Markets
Corporations too made big bets on the blockchain in 2021. Visa moved to allow payment settlements using cryptocurrency with PayPal & Venmo following suit. But the big news that sent shockwaves across the traditional and crypto markets was when Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors, revealed that it had allocated a sizable portion, $1.5-billion, of its balance sheet to Bitcoin.

If you want to understand the crypto industry a little more, our chats with Hossein Azari, Founder & CEO of DeFi company CMORQ, is a great first step:

Will Software Engineers Be Replaced by AI in the Future?

Things Have Changed

11/08/21 • 13 min

Technology has already come after several blue collar jobs of the past, like assembly line workers, cashiers, phone operators, and travel agents, to name a few.
But is it possible for AI to automate and replace the job of a software engineer?
Most technology we use today involves software - from watching our favorite shows on Netflix, to ordering a Starbucks pickup, to scheduling an early morning Uber to the airport. It should come as no surprise that programming has been the most in-demand job in our digital economy over the past 20 years.
But as of late, a fascinating new technology known as GitHub Pilot has been making waves in tech. Copilot is an automatic coding tool, powered by OpenAI, one of the world's leading AI research laboratories and founded by tech titans such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman. It can effectively look at code written by a human programmer and suggest further lines or alternative code, eliminating some of the repetitive labor that goes into software development.
Today, we chat with Nick Vincent once again, but this time about the ethics and irony of AI being able to automate programming itself.
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to keep up with the latest stories in our ever-changing digital economy. @thingshavechangedpod

How to be More Efficient at Imposing Sanctions with Professor Seth Benzell

Things Have Changed

06/27/22 • 13 min

32 years ago, Mcdonalds opened a restaurant in Moscow. Many people interpretted it as a soft integration to the west. In 1990, 30,000 people lined up for the opening at Pushkin Square, for many, it was the first taste of western consumerism. Since then, the Russian people have fallen in love with the Big Mac and the chain has grown all over the country.

But today, the American fast-food giant has pulled out of Russia entirely. McDonalds closed over 800 stores in the country and ended up selling their productive resources to the Russians. The new owner replaced the symbolic golden arches with a new brand, "Vkusno & tochka", which translates to "Tasty & That's it".

But McDonalds isn’t the only one. So many other companies are leaving Russia! From the Auto industry (Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen AG), to the Finance industry (Goldman Sachs, Visa, American Express, and Paypal), companies are either suspending operations or limiting their services in the country of 146 million people - check out this article to see who's made drastic measures.

The sanctions of the west are definitely taking effect and the Russian economy is drastically changing... But are the changes what the west was aiming for?

Last episode, we talked about what Sanctions are and Professor Seth Benzells work around studying their effects. In this episode, we’re going to hear the professors thoughts about where policy makers might want to spend more time.

Tune in to learn about which Moscow factory, that used to employ 10,000 people, is being sold to the Russian government for $1 rouble..
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Ethical Artificial Intelligence? How AI Is Impacting Our Lives

Things Have Changed

01/04/21 • 17 min

It happened not too long ago, the most complex board game (GO) with as many possible moves as atoms in the Universe was won by an Artificial Intelligence designed by Google to take on the smartest humans. Is this the end of board game gurus and the start of robot domination? We don't know...
AI has been a consistent theme within Things Have Changed over the past year. Episode 6 with Kristian Gebis covered trucking & transportation in the age of AI specifically the 5 levels of self driving autonomy, & Episode 12 dove into intelligent Fashion curation with Savitude Co-Founder Nick Clayton. In Episode 7, our very own friend and early supporter , Juan Rodriguez from Evolution devices, is mastering the Machine Learning & AI algorithms that enable a wearable device to rehabilitate patients suffering from foot drop.
Looking back, AI has consistently disrupted old jobs while creating new ones. It’s created solutions while bringing up issues that we never had before. For example driverless cars will lower fatality rates, but who will be liable for accidents with robot drivers and how do we regulate this? This dilemma has happened in industries across the board with the computer and manufacturing factories.
Another challenge is the ethics behind it. Who has control over our data, how are they accessing it, and is it being used in a way that is helping us more than it’s hurting us. We saw this in the Social Dilemma, where Tech leaders have had a look behind the curtains of what AI is doing to us users. While tech companies profit from the use of our data, should there be a tax on using personal data and should there be a tax on creating robots that replace jobs?
While it’s scary to see those Black mirror episodes that warn us of the dangers that AI has on society, it still has a place in our lives that can help raise the standard of living and improve our lives in ways we never thought could be possible.

Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud

Things Have Changed

09/19/22 • 31 min

It’s happening. AWS is no longer the only cloud heavyweight doing business with the US Government. Azure has recently signed a $10 Billion deal with the DoD.
Gartner reports that AWS is still a better product than most competitors, in terms of what they offer and the quality! But some ask if it's fair that the DoD is only doing business with Amazon, a representation of perpetuating the monopoly Amazon is clinging onto. Amazon and Oracle both raised questions about “political interference”.
Microsoft’s resurgence has been nothing short of extraordinary! With almost a year and a half of revenues more than 30% of AWS’, has Microsoft officially trumped Amazon in Cloud? And don't forget Google, the small fish in this race aggressively ramping up in high growth markets like India & South East Asia.
If you’re curious about how the Cloud Wars are pitting the biggest tech companies against each other, tune in!
Some helpful links:

How Unemployment and Inequality Go Hand in Hand

Things Have Changed

01/18/21 • 26 min

In April of this year, at the peak of the pandemic, the unemployment rates hit a historic 14.7%, which was a post WWII high! Since then, the unemployment rate has decreased but that doesn't paint the full picture. In the turn of the year, there were 965,000 claims filed for unemployment insurance. After the new jobs report came out, we learned that 140,000 jobs were lost in the month of December. But economists agree that 2021 will look better.
Disparity in the Details
If we dig deeper into the details, the pandemic also shined a light on the current socio-economic issues that we've already faced. On THC, we've talked a lot about income and wealth inequality. if we look into the unemployment numbers specifically, we see that the most recent number is 6.7% but what that number doesn't tell you is WHO is losing their jobs.
The lowest paid workers are experiencing this unemployment much harder than what you probably think. The servers, waiters, fast-food workers, are losing their jobs at a faster rate. The lowest paid workers, mostly in the leisure and hospitality industry, are having a whopping 20% unemployment. Unsurprisingly, most of the people who have lost their jobs are either African-American or Latino. The black unemployment rate is 9.9%, hispanic rate is 9.3%, and for whites it lies at 6%. Further, women as a group accounted for all the job losses, losing 156,000 jobs, while men as a group gained 16,000. Women are disproportionately represented among the vulnerable workforce as well, accounting for 51% of these workers nationally, versus 46% in industries not at immediate risk.
But there are active efforts on a government level to address these issues.Federal Reserve Response
Let's go back to the start of the pandemic. In anticipation for the recession to come, the Federal Reserve had taken actions to reduce interest rates (that were already historically low) to near-zero rates. They also went on a bond-buying spree to ensure liquidity in the markets. Some people think this may have averted a greater crisis, due to how the fed reacted in 2008. Another interesting monetary policy change is the choice of the federal reserve to keep rates low until recovery is shared across social classes.
CARES Act
The house also passed the CARES act which covers a few critical areas: Employee Retention Credit, which incentivizes businesses to keep their employees; Payroll Tax Deferral and Payroll Support, which ensures employers have some breathing room from the adjustments they've had to make in COVID; and a Loan program, to help people get through these tough times. Read more about it here.
COVID-based Recovery
We've lost around 3.4 million jobs since the pandemic started and there are more jobs at risk until we control COVID-19. According to a recent survey done by WSJ, economists think that the roll-out of vaccine will determine the rate of recovery of any nation. If you think about it, once people are vaccinated, businesses will be more comfortable having a more open economy.
As we look at these figures and learn about who is really suffering during these challenging times, keep in mind that you know who is being greatly affected by this crisis. We hope that this podcast can help you make informed decisions on how to help where it counts!

Why Corporate Debt and Reckless Actions Result in More Borrowing

Things Have Changed

06/06/20 • 10 min

Today the Things Have Changed hosts discuss corporate debt, why there is so much of it, and the dangers of it in our economy.
Corporate debt was already at historic highs even before the coronavirus crisis and now it's soaring at an unprecedented pace as companies scramble to ensure they have enough cash to weather the crisis.
Despite warnings of widespread downgrades, defaults and bankruptcies from various ratings agencies, credit analysts and the Fed itself, bond spreads are narrowing. This indicates a dangerous bullishness from investors as more of the U.S. economy opens for business.
What if you are a company that's healthy and have an abundance of assets to collateralize, well you take advantage of these record low rates and borrow even more money just like Apple.

In May, Apple borrowed $8.5 B at a decade low rate of 3% even though they have $207B cash in the bank. Borrowing and yields have gotten to the point that if you're not borrowing, you're losing the opportunity cost of not borrowing cheap money.
Even Disney, the darling of the stock market, entered into a $5 billion credit agreement as it scrambles to bolster its liquidity to weather the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.

The reality is that most businesses are not in a a healthy position and are trying to stay alive with shutdowns being enforced and revenue flows freezing up.
In the coming months companies will have to make tough decisions and be strategic in how they use debt to stay afloat while minimizing the risk of bankruptcy.

Navigating Regulation in the Cannabis Industry – with Stacey Hronowski

Things Have Changed

07/21/20 • 47 min

Although the political landscape has largely leaned towards more positive sentiment towards cannabis, it is still very expensive and risky to do business in the industry largely because of compliance burdens like tracking the entire operation from seed-to-sale.

Cannabis companies often spend 1/3rd of their time on compliance-related issues.

There are licenses required to do different parts of the process like growing, manufacturing, selling. What’s worse is, they cannot participate in the financial markets because banks will ultimately get fined for doing business with them.

Regulation 280E and Significant Growth Constraint
The cannabis industry has been set up to fail. Although it’s getting more mainstream, there are still significant choke points that prevent businesses from thriving like Regulation 280E, a piece of legislation that punishes banks for doing business with any company that deals with a schedule I or II drug (Cannabis is still a Schedule I drug federally). Some large cannabis companies receive their transactions in cash only and have a difficult time getting capital to scale businesses. Furthermore, individual states have different regulations and amounts of license, which makes it much more difficult to participate.
Capital comes to Cannabis
As the industry grows and becomes legal in more states, there is a new interest in investment. In 2018, there was a $13Bn investment into the legal marijuana industry up from $3.4Bn in 2017. When capital starts flowing into the industry, the entrepreneurs start finding ways to solve more problems!

We talked to Stacey Hronowski, an entrepreneur that is trying to get rid of the compliance burden by creating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool called Canix to handle just that.

Since everything from growing the product to selling it needs to be tracked, Canix has found a way to make it easier for businesses to collect their data, use their data, and strive with it. As I was pointing towards the gold mine of data in the podcast, Stacey kept emphasizing the importance of understanding what the customers needs are with the data that they collect.

Canix doesn't only become an ERP for compliance purposes but also a place to figure out how to become successful in the industry. The current suite has all sorts of functionality like live inventory tracking, METRC integration (The regulation stuff), chart of accounts management (the accounting stuff), RFID harvesting, and clone data. Yeah.. if you aren't very familliar with the industry, Stacey can help explain that to you!

Sit back, light it up, and absorb a little more than THC and CBD. Actually, just a lot of THC.

Consume that.

A dose of Things Have Changed (THC).. That's us.
Some Helpful Links:
1. More Information on Canix
2. Cannabis Software
3. How METRC fits in

These Climate Change Initiatives May Not Be Enough

Things Have Changed

01/11/21 • 15 min

2019 was the second warmest year on record and the end of the warmest decade (2010- 2019) ever recorded. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to new records in 2019, but global carbon dioxide emissions fell an unprecedented 7 per cent in 2020 due to coronavirus restrictions.
Over the last decade, Wall Street poured hundreds of billions of dollars into U.S. oil, fueling a fracking boom that transformed America into the world’s leading crude producer. But, Oil-and-gas companies have been lousy investments in recent years. Burned by those losses, many large investors are flocking to businesses that aim to wean the world off fossil fuels.

One of the leaders in the fight for Climate Change is founder of Sinai Technologies, Maria Fujihara. Listen to our full discussion with Maria (Building Corporate Carbon Solutions) on how technology is solving pollution in a financially conscious and sustainable approach. There are steps being taken towards climate change but many still argue that it may not be enough. As we are going to see all these governments, multi-lateral organizations, and businesses walk the walk.
Let’s hold them accountable.