This is our third week of the newsletter to be interested in everything that is going on in and around us at a broad and bare minimum with some content that will ensure we invoke curiosity and interest.
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious” - Albert Einstein
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As we have mentioned in our first letter, we will talk a lot about Commerce, Commodities & Shipping, Finance & Crypto as we are very interested in learning and interpreting what sells, what ships and what finances the world transactions. Once our research becomes extensive, we will break the newsletters into each specific areas of focus.
Around us:
Yesterday was Thanksgiving and it is never too old to review the history of the same. Happy thanksgiving to all.
FIFA Soccer World Cup 2022 - FIFA World cup 2022 kicked off on 20th November 2022. The 2022 FIFA soccer world cup wasn’t short of controversies. The most important thing about any sport is to bring people together and spread happiness and the act of winning drives two sides to compete till the end of 90th minute.
Short Summary of the interesting things leading to world cup 2022:
Origins of Soccer - Soccer is the world's most popular sport. But who invented it and what is its history?
Since FIFA, the governing body for international soccer, awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in 2010, the tournament has been ensnared in a tangled web of scandals.
The numbers neither FIFA nor Qatar will not want us to see in the lead to the soccer world cup
John Oliver’s last week tonight was insightful and funny to say the least describing the Qatar World Cup.
Controversies leading into the world cup is something FIFA has taken a lot of heat over the recent few years but this is not the first time and we are less learnt unless we explore the history of FIFA.
Our thoughts: Too many countries and FIFA have vested interest in making it what it can be and hence politics, gaming, sponsorships and the economic impact the game can have in the hosting nation is no less lucrative across the world. For the all the bad outside the stadium, there is a game that is being played inside the stadium and two countries are competing throughout the world cup. So jump into your seats and support the players within the stadium. All tournament long, match balls will contain a sensor that collects spatial positioning data in real time — the first World Cup to employ such a ball-tracking mechanism. For now we are excited about VAR.
Our thoughts: Population is more in the center than left or to the right. A population not very inclined to the abortion rights being retracted have pulled it away from a complete red wave. A population has also seen the amount of spending for the war to be unacceptable bringing the far left to the middle. A population worried about the Trump contesting again for 2024 has left them leaning to the middle and so do we have households in splits as to where they align their loyalties.
Musk: Exposing Twitter's Internal Discussion Of Hunter Biden Laptop Story "Necessary To Restore Public Trust"
Our thoughts: Is this a battle of the Left and the right? Is Elon Musk really a supporter of free speech or is he leaning right? Why is this the most important thing for 2024? What is public trust & will it be restored any more here than what we have if we move the other side? Will we make good decisions along the way?
Bob Iger is back. Let us leave the rest to this thread:
4. Is this the end of crypto? Are we at the beginning or the end.
UPDATE: ‘drop dead’ date for Genesisbankruptcy decision is Wednesday. The previously undisclosed $1.1B promissory note from Genesis to DCG still exists. Lack of liquidity and loan losses at Genesis still exists.
Our thoughts: We said this last week. We are doubling down on need to increase focus and productivity. It is time to build. Get back to keeping your heads down and running hard. It is a time like none other and the winter may be quite long.
FTX: A tiring story for generations to review, assess and have their own conclusions.
Our thoughts: Everything about FTX is a tiring read and let us leave it at here for a different day to write a longer read on the same.
Interesting Info:
We get caught up in a lot of things. Very often we don’t zoom out or zoom in and don’t address the central problem and are deceived by what we see and listen and these are very much applicable in today’s world and situation of all things that matter. This is one of my favorite subjects of all time.
ON THIS DAY: On this day in 1783, the last British troops evacuate New York City. Later that day, Washington marches into the city at the head of the triumphant Continental Army.
“Commerce is the equalizer of the wealth of nations” - William E. Gladstone
We decided to talk about Black Friday, its origins, what it changed in the world and everything most families in the US look forward to on this day.
All of us today attribute “Black Friday” to all the sales, store openings, what deal can I get? and thanks the retailers that have Black Friday Ads all over the country. Let us go back in time before we discuss the current state of affairs on a Black Friday.
In the 1950’s, the term “Black Friday” was referred to the chaos by the police of Philadelphia the day after Thanks Giving as people from sub-urban areas flooded to the city as a precursor to an Army-Navy football on Saturday. This created a lot of chaos and and nightmare due to shoplifters making hay of the merchandise at stores and creating a headache for police officials. The cops could not take day offs and had to work long hours. The crowd, traffic and trade was so large that additional help was needed by cops to maintain harmony.
Indeed, in another archived clip from a piece titled “Tips to Good Human Relations for Factory Executives,” which was published in a 1951 issue of Factory Management and Maintenance, the author describes rampant absenteeism the Friday after Thanksgiving:
“Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis” is a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects. At least that’s the feeling of those who have to get production out, when the “Black Friday” comes along. The shop may be half empty, but every absentee was sick ― and can prove it.
It’s not clear whether Black Friday was a common expression as early as 1951 or if the author of the article was simply being clever, but one thing’s for sure: Not a whole lot of people were fans of that day.
By 1961, “Black Friday” had caught on in Philadelphia, to the extent that the city’s merchants and boosters tried unsuccessfully to change it to “Big Friday” in order to remove the negative connotations. The term didn’t spread to the rest of the country until much later, however, and as recently as 1985 it wasn’t in common use nationwide. Sometime in the late 1980s, however, retailers found a way to reinvent Black Friday and turn it into something that reflected positively, rather than negatively, on them and their customers. The result was the “red to black” concept of the holiday mentioned earlier, and the notion that the day after Thanksgiving marked the occasion when America’s stores finally turned a profit.
The Black Friday story stuck, and pretty soon the term’s darker roots in Philadelphia were largely forgotten. Since then, the one-day sales bonanza has morphed into a four-day event, and spawned other “retail holidays” such as Small Business Saturday/Sunday and Cyber Monday. Stores started opening earlier and earlier on that Friday, and now the most dedicated shoppers can head out right after their Thanksgiving meal.
A recession can occur due to various reasons and most of the time you don’t know what is going to hit you till it actually hits you. There are several bubbles in the making the one that is inflated to a large degree tends to be the first to burst open. Few people saw the banking crisis in 2008-09. Few people saw the Y2K in the 2000s.
There are though leading indicators that make recessionary like conditions to be created such as now where the job losses are on the uptick. The interest rates are rising and their impact usually is seen only when they stop rising.
The US money supply (M2) has gone up every year since 1959 and this is probably the first calendar year in which money supply has fallen in the last 60+ years Source: (M2 Supply).
The conditions now are nothing like we have seen in the past. As interest rates go up, earnings go down and cost of capital goes up. As earnings go down, companies are forced to cut costs and forced to cause reduction in force (RIF). RIF causes less spending and causes inflation to cool down while economy is impaired. Growth rates are directly seen adjusted in the economy and the overall GDP is impacted and comes recessionary conditions. Let us look at interest rates across the world.
“Interest rates are to asset prices what gravity is to the apple. When there are low interest rates, there is a very low gravitational pull on asset prices.” - Warren Buffet
Market Data & Flash updates that could impact Supply Chains:
Equity Markets: Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,347 ; Nasdaq: 11,226 ; S&P: 4,026 Food for thought: Overall the markets have been a tad little up over the last week. Will profit booking, tax harvesting and portfolio adjustments cause a rally be end of December? Are we headed to cooling off of inflation followed with some rally.
The US Federal Reserve released the minutes of the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) on Thursday, sparking expectations of a cool-off in the aggressive rate hikes.
Minutes from FOMC suggest a substantial majority of the committee support a slowing of the pace of tightening soon
Nike has generated $93 million to date in primary NFT sales and another $92 million worth of NFT trading royalties. Every retailer and commerce player will look into this in more detail and we can see more participants in the coming years.
Circle adds support for apple pay. Commerce adoption of crypto is in full swing.
Adidas is no slower than Nike. It unveils its first NFT wearable Virtual Gear, on Ethereum.
Our Thoughts: We really don’t know how to read the bulk markets. Bulk industry has been sluggish and we some corrections but is this dead cat bounce? Are we headed to rising prices long term? Food for thought: Under $3K from $20K below Pre-covid numbers a good thing or bad thing?
What can we do better? Leave us a comment. We are here to learn, get better and give you the insights needed for you to succeed in Commerce, Shipping & Finance long term.
The Vault: We are currently live with “The Vault”. Feel free to download it. We would love to get your feedback to build the Future of Ownership.
The Vault is powered by a multi-party computation (MPC) based web 3.0 (for lack of better term) wallet that will bring ownership of assets and features that can be used cross border for Global Trade.
The Bill of Lading is the successive document to its predecessors, the Medieval Law Merchant and the Lex Mercatoria (New Law Merchant).
The Medieval Law Merchant, established around the 11th century, comprised a relatively efficient legal regime for trade beyond local borders. It functions included; enabling merchants to escape conflicts between various local customs and rules, and to avoid submitting to the authority of judges attached to pre-existing jurisdictions (the courts of feudal manors, city states, local gilds, the Church).
The jurisdiction manifested fundamental principles such as:
· Good faith (promises must be kept)
· Reciprocity (exchange for mutual benefit)
· Non- discrimination between locals and foreigners at the site of exchange
These were some of the earliest policies in the mercantile system.
The first document on merchant law was written by Gerard Malynes and was published in England in 1622, called Consultudo Vel Lex Mercatoria. It stated that issues involving commerce should be governed by a separate set of laws to be followed by all nations and particularly held by England. Lex mercatoria, which was also termed as New Merchant Law, set the precedent for standardization in the maritime industry. After the seventeenth century, Lex mercatoria, became part of English common law and established the first modern negotiable instrument that would later develop into present day bill of lading.
Previously, the bill of lading was invented in the 13th century and its functions were gradually created by the practical needs of substantial and tangible evidence of contract for all primary parties (i.e. shipper, carrier and consignee) alongside technical development over time. It’s also widely accepted that Italy is the birthplace of the bill of lading, because of the growing economies of the Italian city states due to the sea commerce between Italy and the Roman Empire in Constantinople. Its first copy was written in 1564.
The initial functions of the bill of lading during its inception were:
· a receipt for goods received by master or ship owners
· Through the centuries it has developed into a receipt containing the contract of carriage between shipper and carrier,
· And it acquired the third characteristic later on, negotiable document of title.
The bill of lading was once called a “bill of loading”. Originally merchants in the old days didn’t really have a need for a bill of lading when transporting their goods, because merchants were often also the master of the ship or they would travel at sea with their merchandise. This wasn’t a very practical system. With commercial activity increasing in the world and merchants staying at shore, such transportation documents needed to be generated to prevent disputes and to serve as a proof of shipment to protect both shipper and consignee. Masters of the vessels had to be attended with clerks when receiving goods. These clerks were a member of the crew and their most important duty was to accurately record the cargo received in a parchment book or register while the master, shipper and another witness were present. The bill of lading which was originally a copy of the book of lading was produced to guard against the loss of the only record of the cargo in case a ship was lost. In such case the shipper would often be at the mercy of the master to clarify what the cargo consisted. Since the merchants didn’t accompany the cargo anymore, there was also a need for separate documentation that they could keep with them, and later another copy would also serve as proof that the party demanding the cargo at destination was in fact the consignee.
Evidence and Examples of the Evolution of the Bill of Lading
Through the centuries, many protocols and rules shaped the characteristics of today’s modern bill of lading, limitation of the parties, practices of bill of lading exchanges, shipper’s consignee’s and carrier’s legal rights.
Hague Visby rule (which is an International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Bills of Lading) is an example of the evolution of its function these rules have been ratified and incorporated into the domestic legislation of many countries in the Caribbean region.
Another of these International conventions includes the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act which is described as a UK statute that repeals and replaces the bill of lading act 1855. Over the years there have been many types of bills of lading used in the shipping industry which came about as a result of evolution of purposes depending on transportation.
Examples of these are:
· Clean bill of lading
· Unclean bill of lading
· Negotiable bill of lading
· Combine transport bill of lading etc.
The Initial Formalization and Convention of the Bill of lading
A simultaneous development took place in the British dominions and the United States, whose ocean trade depend heavily on the United Kingdom ship owners. It was in these countries, therefore, that the struggle between ship owning and cargo interest reached a point of crisis and as a result legislations were amended to remove the chaos and abuse produced by unlimited freedom of contract.
After considerable discussion among, the representatives of leading ship owners, underwriters, and bankers of a big maritime nation, a set of rules were drafted by the maritime law committee of the international law association at a meeting held in Hague 1921 which came to be known as the Hague rules. These rules constituted the various Bills of lading. The Hague rules were officially called the ‘International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Bills of Lading’.
The rules were not immediately adopted. The rules were amended in London at a CMI (Comite Maritime International) conference in 1922. Agitation for legislative action on the lines of rules was held in Brussels 1922. A draft convention was drawn up in 1923 and eventually an International Convention was ultimately signed on August 25, 1924, at which time the Bill of Lading became a formal document of the Mercantile System.
The Brussels convention was not conceived as a comprehensive and self sufficient code, regulating the carriage of goods by sea, but was intended, merely, to certain rules relating to the Bill of lading. It’s most important effect perhaps was that the carriers can no longer contract out of or avoid certain defined responsibilities. The Hague Visby Rules revised the Hague Rules concerning limitation of financial liability; resulting in the Brussels Protocol of 1968.
REFERENCES
Organization as Author
Seine Maritime. (2003). Glossary of Port and Shipping Terms. Retrieved from: http://www.seinemaritime.net/
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2013). Review of Maritime Transport. Retrieved from : http://unctad.org/en/publicationslibrary/rmt2013_en.pdf
Unknown Author
How to Import Export. (2014). Importance of Bill of lading in international trade. Retrieved from: http://howtoexportimport.com/3-Reasons-under-Importance-of-bill-of-lading-in-in-45.aspx
Article in Journal Paginated by Volume
Sweet, A.S. (2006). The new Lex Mercatoria and transnational governance. Journal of European Public Policy, 13, 627 –646. Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/SAM/Documents/COLLEGE%20NOTES/Commercial%20Shipping/LexMercatoriaTransnationalgovernance.pdf
