Welcome to our #130 weekly newsletter.
“For women taking control of their financial future”
-Jana Hlistova
From The Purse
In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight our interview with Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber MD.
We talk about their new book: The XX Edge: Unlocking higher returns and lower risk; why women need to take centre stage in financial decision making and investing, how women invest and how this leads to better performance.
Listen to the full interview on The Purse Podcast here.
And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Until next week,
Jana
XX edge: women as decision makers and investors
We interviewed Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber MD on The Purse Podcast about their new book: The XX Edge: Unlocking higher returns and lower risk.
We interviewed Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber MD on The Purse Podcast about their new book: The XX Edge: Unlocking higher returns and lower risk.
Patience Marime-Ball has more than two decades of investment experience across capital markets, including debt and equity financing, large scale infrastructure, distressed assets, as well as venture stage opportunities.
Ruth Shaber MD is the founder and president of the Tara Health Foundation, which promotes health, well-being, and opportunity for women and girls through innovative evidence-informed programs. She is also the co-founder and board chair of Rhia Ventures.
We talk about why women need to take centre stage in financial decision making and investing, how women invest, why investing in female led innovation is key, and how we can put more money into the hands of women in order to drive better outcomes and create more wealth for women.
Here is a short extract from the interview (we have edited down the response for ease of reading only):
Question: …if more women and when more women have more capital, access to more money and they're allocating it and they're allocating it to female founders, female scientists, will we see women asking for more and getting it?
Patience’s answer:
One:
I think sometimes women ask for less because there's a belief that they will not get it anyway…if I ask more, I'm not going get it anyway… so I will ask for what I believe the men on the other side of the decision table is going to give me.
But I think what's really important is that when women ask for more, the companies they build are likely to address more challenges because we know that women have the sensibilities, the long view, the risk awareness, as well as the collaborative leadership style.
They're also likely to allocate into differentiated opportunities; opportunities that may not be necessarily visible. So what you have is the opportunity for getting more profits out of solutions and investments that are not mainstream.
So you're able to pick up on returns that otherwise would not be visible in the more mainstream decision making rooms.
Two:
What you're going to realise is that you have an opportunity to grow the pie. When you have more women in these decision making rooms, what you will get in return is better performance on your portfolio.
From picking up returns from undervalued opportunities, differentiated opportunities, opportunities that are doing more than one thing at the same time, really driving solutions to today's pressing problems and all of those things.
So you will get better returns and you will absolutely have better risk mitigation as well. And this grows the pie.
That's from an investment perspective.
In 2015, McKinsey issued a study that demonstrated this. They looked at 95 countries and if each country worked towards bringing women into full employment, giving them opportunities similar to everyone else, and those full opportunities would include entrepreneurship and access to funding, the global economy would add $25 trillion between 2015 and 2025.
And even if you took a more conservative view of this opportunity …you would have added $12 trillion to global GDP.
That's huge.
That's an opportunity that's being ignored…if we don't bring women into decision making rooms..
***
Listen to the full interview on The Purse Podcast with Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber MD.
News in Brief
Financial news
S&P 500 gained 3.7% over holiday-shortened week. While Fed expectations grew more hawkish, swaps now pricing +72 basis points for September, markets are optimistic that the Central bank can restore price stability without derailing growth.
Energy prices continue to fall as EU Energy Ministers asked the Commission to come up with emergency liquidity measures to help strained energy markets as well as severing the link between expensive gas and power prices. Gas drops 7%.
The European Central Bank (ECB) new inflation projections are shocking: 8.1% this year, 5.5% in 2023 and 2.3% in 2024, miles away from the 2% target they want to hit in the medium term. ECB raises growth outlook for this year, but slashes outlook for 2023 & 2024.
ECB hikes interest rates by record 75 basis points as expected. Expects to raise rates further over next meetings.
On Wednesday, the Pound briefly dropped to lowest level vs the Dollar since 1985. Pound now down 15% year-to-date.
Liz Truss, UK’s new Prime Minister, to freeze energy bills at £2,500 a year average, funded by borrowing.
Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs
After dipping below $19,000 at the start of the week, bitcoin then enjoyed a steady 7.3%+ recovery over the last seven days and trades for $21,600+
The Bloomberg Crypto Outlook Report explains changes in the Fed’s tight monetary policy can result in rising prices for bitcoin. The report cites bitcoin’s dwindling supply as the reason for its likely increase in value over time.
Ethereum, rallied harder just days before the Ethereum merge event to proof of stake. It shot up 11%+ over the week and is currently worth $1,739+
Several so-called “Ethereum killers," aka layer-1 blockchains with high-functionality smart contracts, enjoyed notable rallies too: Cardano (ADA) blew up 9.4% to hit 51 cents, Solana (SOL) grew 11.4% and trades for $35, Avalanche (avax) rose 8% to $20.35, and NEAR Protocol surged 13% to $4.71.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin gave two reasons why he’s concerned for Bitcoin’s long-term health. He pointed to issues related to transaction fees and argued that proof of stake is more efficient.
MicroStrategy says it may buy more bitcoin in stock ale filing. Firm plans to sell as much as $500m in Class A shares.
The British parliament had its first crypto debate on Wednesday. The UK wants to "become the country of choice for those looking to create, innovate and build in the crypto space," according to Richard Fuller, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.
The Purse Podcast
We cover the following in our conversation:
Why women need to take centre stage in financial decision making and investing & how women invest
Why investing in female led innovation is key
How we can put more money into the hands of women in order to drive better outcomes and create more wealth for women.
Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+.
Coffee Break? Read This
We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.
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