#47 Russia credit rating reduced to Junk
Oil imports banned by US & UK
Welcome to another edition of Business News for Kids. Back to our expanded format, minus some sections. Don’t miss this week’s mental model. ⚡️
Busy business this week 💼
Credit rating agency Fitch downgraded Russia’s sovereign credit rating into ‘Junk’ territory 💩. Like people and companies, countries also borrow money. When they do so, credit rating agencies evaluate it’s economic and political environment and assign a rating from AAA (best) to D (worst). Russia’s rating was moved from B i.e. Highly Speculative to C i.e. Near Default. See the Fitch rating scale here. ⚖️
US and UK extended economic sanctions by banning import of Russian Oil & Gas products 🛢 as well as banning exports to Russia of luxury goods 👜.
The UK extended the list of sanctioned Russian Oligarchs to include Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich ⚽️. The club’s bank accounts were frozen temporarily by Barclays Bank 🏦 and it was no longer allowed to sell tickets or merchandise 🎽.
Meanwhile American President Biden signed an executive order on cryptocurrencies calling for formally examining the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies and evaluating a digital version of the US dollar 💸.
And mega payments startup Stripe launched supported for cryptocurrency based businesses. The $95 billion valued startup launched APIs that businesses can use to easily integrate crypto payment options on their websites.
Wait, what is..
Credit Rating: A scoring of an individual, company, or country’s credit worthiness and an evaluation of the risk of their ability to repay a credit (loan).
Sovereign Credit Rating: A country’s credit rating. 🤷
Import: When a country buys / brings products from other countries into it.
Export: When a country sells / sends products to other countries.
Inspiring business people to know 🙏
Meet the People of Ukraine, our inspiring business persons of the week.
While Ukraine is still a developing nation, ranking 74th in the Human Development Index, it is fast becoming an Economic powerhouse. Right from Information Technology to Agriculture, Ukraine is a leading exporter and producer of world class talent and products. In 2019, it was the no.1 exporter of IT services in Europe and is consistently in the worlds top 10 producers for products like wheat, maize, oils and nuts. Moreover, several stellar startup founders like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff and Whatsapp’s Jan Kuom are of Ukrainian origin. Read more about Ukraine’s economy here.
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BNFK distills the latest, most interesting, Business News 📰 .. to an emoji filled, ultra informative, and fun Newsletter for Kids. Delivered every Sunday. Previous editions here. Forwarding this? Ask them to hit 👇 & subscribe for FREE.
Stocks, stonks and.. ⚡️
Indian EdTech company BYJUs raised a mammoth $800 million funding round at a $22 billion valuation. Its founder Byju Ravindran pitched in $400 million of his own money into the round. 🚀
Mental models.. whaaaat! 🤯
My dad insisted we put this section in here, even though I protested saying its going to be a while before kids need to apply mental models. Mental models are nothing but ways of thinking, you can use as a framework, to take decisions or solve problems. Who knows, they might just be useful!
Seeing the Front - A War time mental model. 'One of the most valuable military tactics is the habit of “personally seeing the front” before making decisions' - Farnam Street.
We can already see results on not doing so in the war Russia is waging on Ukraine; many of its generals and Putin himself possibly never went to 'see the front' i.e. the streets, and courage of the people, of Ukraine. And as a result grossly underestimated what it would take to win the war.
While business is not war, a good analogy of this can be we must always "see the front" e.g. If you grow up to become the CEO of a retail store, you must speak to or meet your customers 'at the front' i.e. directly by visiting your physical retail stores to really get a feel of how things are on the ground.More models on Military & War from Farnam Street here.
Tech, products, toys ++ 🤖
A car with its own drone? 🛸 EV car maker Polestar revealed its O2 concept convertible sports car. It comes with its own drone that can fly at 56 miles per hour (mph) thats 90 km / hour (kmph). 🚀👇
Pro Tip: The magic of learning is in curiosity. Don’t shy away from clicking those hyperlinked texts to read and learn more. We mostly hyperlink to text we have read ourselves to make sure it is safe, but please be aware that comments and ads shown on these pages are beyond our control. We recommend using a kids friendly browser to view the links. Please read all Disclaimers.
Take care. See you next week. Pray for Ukraine and for Russian citizens. 🙏