Mon. Mar 8th, 2021

Day: January 1, 2021

Bitcoin surges to record $28,500, quadrupling in value during 2020

Bitcoin has continued its end-of-year Santa Claus rally, surging to a new high of more than $28,500.

The cryptocurrency gained more than 5% to hit $28,572 on Wednesday. It is up 47% since the start of December and is on track for its biggest monthly gain since May 2019.

Bitcoin has almost quadrupled in value this year as interest from institutional investors has grown.

As the US dollar has declined, bitcoin has become a more attractive investment amid concerns that huge government stimulus packages prompted by the coronavirus pandemic will fuel inflation. In the US, a bigger package could be passed once Joe Biden has replaced Donald Trump as president.

On Wednesday the dollar dropped to its lowest level since April 2018, when measured against a basket of currencies. The US currency is under pressure as investors move into riskier assets, betting on a strong economic recovery next year as

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By wyna 2 months ago

Why Quartz’s management decided to buy the financial news site

Zach Seward

Peter Kafka of Recode spoke with Zach Seward, the CEO of Quartz, about why he and others have purchased the financial news site.

Seward is seeking additional investors in Quartz. He told Kafka that the pitch is that Quartz has a strong brand with a dedicated, loyal audience that is interested in global business news.

He noted that subscription revenue being equal to advertising revenue at Quartz is still at least five years away. Its previous owner, Uzabase, was trying to create a community of readers that Seward said “didn’t work as well as it hoped.” And then the pandemic occurred, which caused Uzabase to reassess its ownership.

“There was interest from a number of parties, and somewhere in the middle of that, [Quartz editor in chief] Katherine [Bell] and I raised our hand,” said Seward.

“I love Quartz and I believe deeply in what

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By wyna 2 months ago

A four day week can be affordable for UK business

A carefully designed four-day week could be introduced in the UK immediately and be affordable for most firms with more than 50 workers, a thinktank has said.

A report by Autonomy – which is campaigning for a shorter working week without loss of pay – said the majority of 50,000 firms studied would be able to cope with the change through higher productivity or by raising prices.

The thinktank said the government should investigate ways of rolling out a four-day week, starting with the public sector.

Although many companies are struggling with the lingering impact of the UK’s deepest slump in more than 300 years, Autonomy said that even under its “worst-case” scenario, a four-day week would be affordable for most firms once the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic had passed.

It accepted, however, that some firms in sectors where labour costs were high and profit margins thin would

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By wyna 2 months ago