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The Business of Bans

From books to beef to screen time, a peep at the profit margins of prohibition.

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  • Book bans are sending old classics back to the bestseller list.
  • Banning meat’s proved pretty lucrative for one beloved California chef.
  • If your kid is asking for more screen time, order Chinese and tell them they’ve got it pretty good.

The silver lining of censorship (kidding…but also, ka-ching)

Obviously banning books is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing (a phrase we learned *from a book*, btw). But is it also good for business? That seems to be the takeaway following the Tennessee School Board’s decision to remove Maus—a graphic novel about the Holocaust—from the eighth grade curriculum. That happened in mid January. In the weeks since, the 1992 Pulitzer winner has cracked Amazon’s top 20, hitting number one in the graphic novels category. 

Similar sales spikes have followed recent crackdowns on The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) and The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison). And it’s not always the far right behind the banning: Last year the discontinuation of six Dr. Seuss titles (featuring racist imagery) sent other Seussian titles soaring up the best seller charts. 

It’s something we could be seeing more of. According to recent data from the American Library Association, the fall of 2021 saw the most instances of “book challenges” since the group started record keeping more than 50 years ago. Meanwhile, Maus author, Art Spiegelman, has rebuffed offers from Hollywood to option his book for the big screen. He says the story (where Jews are mice and nazis are cats) is best served by the comic format. And honestly, who needs movie money when you’ve got LeVar Burton AND the moral high ground on your side?

Next up: Why did the lab rendered chicken cross the road?

Lab grown meat is big business and it’s getting a boost from one of the world’s most influential chefs. In 2018, Dominique Crenn banned meat from the menu at her Michelin star restaurant in San Francisco. Her goal was to effect “real environmental change”, and clearly taste didn’t suffer—Atelier Crenn scored a third star after moving to a meat-free menu. 

Four years (and one pandemic) later, chicken is making its triumphant return, following Crenn’s partnership with Upside Foods, the California-based startup at the forefront of cell-based poultry production.

Is this the future of meat? Crenn says yes, and plans to introduce new “chicken” dishes to her menu following regulatory approval. Upside Foods has raised more than 200 million in funding, including an investment from Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey. Just last month, the company acquired Cultured Decadence, another cellular agriculture startup focused on shell-free, cell-based lobster, which sounds a little…well…fishy, but it’s an excellent tongue twister that we won’t knock till we’ve tried it. 

When your kid complains about screen time limits…

…spend a long weekend in China. Tencent Games, one of the world’s largest gaming companies, spent China’s month long Winter Break limiting access to their platform for kids. 14 hours over 30 days.

The policy is in line with a national movement to combat climbing rates of addiction and near sightedness. Last summer the Chinese government banned game play for minors on weekdays and restricted use to three hours on most weekends, encouraging gaming companies to break “from the solitary focus of pursuing profit.”  


These rules took effect last August, prompting stock sell offs and a slump in domestic market growth (a 14.3% decline in just one year). Still, profits are climbing, thanks to robust  global sales. And meanwhile, the policy’s working. Tencent reported that minors now account for 0.7% of time played on their platform, down from 6.4% in 2020.

The outcome? More time to read banned books!

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Inflation’s Hitting the Tooth Fairy

My six-year-old just mentioned that her friend got $20 from the Tooth Fairy. Is that the going rate?

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Twenty bucks is nearly four times the national average, which hit an all-time peak in Canada this year at $5.99. It’s possible the Tooth Fairy was feeling generous, but equally likely she forgot to make change before flying in. 

Given the predictability of this particular payday (20 teeth over about six years), tooth loss is a great opportunity to talk about, you know, fiscal responsibility. Sound about as fun as oral hygiene? Okay, we get you, but the tooth fairy really is a good way to table topics like saving and investing, even inflation (the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time). 

Let’s look at the numbers: 20 teeth x 5.99 = $119.80. Your child’s mouth is building an empire, so it’s as good a time as any to talk about what that money could do over time. 

Delta Dental is an American insurance company that has been tracking the tooth fairy’s financials since 2001. It turns out the amount kids find under their pillow is a good barometer for the overall economy. Your average baby molar fetched more in 2006 than it did in 2008 following the economic downturn. And the fact that rates are higher than ever this year is an encouraging sign of post-pandemic recovery. Another principle at play is what’s known as income elasticity of demand. This is the idea that when people (or fairies) have more money on hand, there are certain things they tend to splurge on disproportionately. Children are one of these items.

So while the TF’s feeling generous, take advantage of a happy time and a teachable moment—while it lasts. One columnist recently argued that given the terrible hours, unsafe working conditions, and non-existent travel budget, the Tooth Fairy may be ready to join The Great Resignation. Who could blame her? She’s an essential worker who doesn’t even get dental insurance.

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If I Had a Million Dollars…

Could I Even Afford the Things in this Song?
Wealthie investigates.

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Let’s get right to it. A million dollars doesn’t buy what it used to. Or does it? We look at the lyrics and break down the numbers to see how this Classic BNL hit has aged.

A House

$790,000

The average cost of a Canadian home in 2021 takes up almost the full million smackers. That’s about five times higher than it was in 2000 ($163,951) and more than double the 2019 average ($339,030). 

A nice chesterfield*

$2199

The Sven couch by the Canadian design company, Article, gets a great review in Architectural Digest. Here’s to buying local!

*Or an ottoman

$529

The matching ottoman goes for $529

A K-Car

$16,368

The Chrysler vehicle (and all around “nice Reliant automobile”) made history as the cheapest car in the compact class. Even adjusted to today’s dollars it’s pretty affordable.

A tree fort

$400

The US national average for building a treehouse is $7000, but you can get that cost down with a little DIY.

A little, tiny fridge

$178

The Frigidaire Retro Mini looks like a reasonable size for a tree fort.

Pre-wrapped sausages

$7.65

That’s for the Johnsonville Original Breakfast Sausage. (Just a thought, but aren’t all sausages technically “pre-wrapped”?)

A fur coat (but not a real fur coat)

$99.90

This snazzy faux fur from Zara is neither prohibitively expensive or creature cruel.

An exotic pet, like a llama

$900

This is for an untrained, untamed llama, which frankly sounds like a bit of a nightmare (but slightly more affordable than the alternative—an emu chick runs for around $1000).

John Merrick’s remains

Priceless

John Merrick, aka The Elephant Man, died in 1890 at the age of 27, suffering from a condition called Proteus syndrome. In 1987, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, offered to buy this particularly significant bag of bones for $1,000,000. He was turned down by the London Hospital Medical College, which said that a sale would be “quite wrong on ethical grounds”.

A limousine

$85

Sure, it’s indulgent (and not great for the environment) to take a limo to the store. But, can you put a price on grocery storage space and legroom?! (Yes, actually, you can!)

Kraft Dinner

$1.34

One box of KD, no butter, no milk.

Expensive ketchup

$4.97

In the song they wonder why there is no Grey Poupon (or fancy) version of ketchup, which is a question that has been pondered by some of the great intellects of our time. Turns out Heinz has a solid grip on the market.

A green dress

$149

Obviously there’s a wide range here. The world’s most expensive dress is a red chiffon number by a Malaysian designer worth $30 million. (Now that’s cruel)

Some art… a Picasso (or a Garfunkel)

Variable

The cheapest work by one of history’s most celebrated artists will run you around $120,000. Which is cheaper than Art Garfunkel’s booking fee (apparently around $350,000). 

A monkey

Variable

The cost of Justin Bieber’s pet Capuchin was about $6,000 (not including the $10K in fees he had to pay when trying to illegally transport it across the border).

Total: $1,936,392.86*

*This figure includes the million dollars towards John Merrick’s remains. Assuming the medical powers that be adhere to their ethical stance, we leave out the million, and the new tally becomes a manageable $936,392.86. This leaves a balance/contingency of $63607.14 to buy “your/their love” — or to boost the house bid, since that may be necessary in this seller’s market. 

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The Business of Memes

Fast reads on things kids care about, or cared about, or may care about again.

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  • Meme stocks as an asset class? Nice work, Reddit. 
  • “Meme fashion” label Pizzaslime makes fast fashion look slow. They’re doing brisk business selling wearable internet culture to Gen Z.
  • Want to create a meme for the ages? According to one prof, there’s a formula for that.  

Read on…

***

The craze around the trading of “meme stocks” GameStop and AMC Entertainment has largely fallen out of mainstream news, but Reddit’s still chasing the highs. And so, it was just a matter of time before MEME ETF hit the scene. MEME launched this December, thanks to Roundhill Investments, purveyors of specialty ETFs such as the Esports & Digital Entertainment ETF, NERD.

With subreddit WallStreetBets 10x-ing in 2021, social investing is here to stay, even if MEME’s performance is on the decline…for now. 

So, should you “buy the dip” on MEME? It’s very early. The fund rebalances bi-weekly, and focuses on stocks “that are both highly shorted and subject to increased retail sentiment”. In other words, if you love roller coasters, this could be a love match. No matter what, it’s bound to keep you calmer than trying to keep up with what’s trending on Reddit.

Nasdaq.com | Sept. 4, 2021

The two millennials behind “meme fashion” label Pizzaslime have made millions selling merch to people interested in wearing internet culture IRL, reports Insider. Their wares reference nerdy-cool things like Elon Musk tweets about meme stocks (“Gamestonk!!”) and that endlessly remixed photo of a mittened-out Bernie Sanders. Commenting on Pizzaslime’s runaway success with Gen Z, one fashion expert said “What matters to younger consumers is what captures their attention and has the ability to spread like wildfire across social networks — and this is exactly why meme fashion is so popular.” We’ve seen plenty of articles in recent years bemoaning how Gen Z has killed the fast fashion propagated by millennials. Perhaps the younger generation has just put a new spin on it — one somehow both faster and more enduring at once.

Insider | May 16, 2021

Speaking of enduring, what is it that gives some memes such incredible longevity, despite the “here today, gone tomorrow” reality of internet culture? Speaking to Forbes, Leilani Carver, a professor of strategic communications, says that since older memes are better known, more people “have the necessary subcultural knowledge to interpret/understand the code and ‘get’ the meme.” 

In the age of the Remix, everything old is new again. We’re into it.

Forbes | Aug. 30, 2021

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The Business of Gaming

a cheat sheet for what matters (maybe) to the kids in your life.

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  • Young gamers can now add “e-sports athlete” and “digital content creator” to their picks for Career Day.
  • The pirated games your kids are playing could end up costing you thousands.
  • And, happily, video game violence appears to be on the decline, as, for the moment, is gaming itself. Impossible to believe? 

Read on… 

***

According to the NY Times, “e-sports is now the fifth-most popular future job among South Korean students”.  South Korea’s elite gamers draw big salaries and celebrity-level sponsorships, but South Korea’s universities offer no athletic scholarships for the pursuit, shrinking opportunities for committed young gamers working to go pro. Enter… the USA. In 2019, California-based company Gen.G launched The Gen.G Elite Esports Academy, to give serious gamers a pathway to an American high school diploma and a chance to apply for e-sport scholarships at American universities. Gen.G charges $25K a year, and works to help “more young gamers find jobs” — while also building a pretty solid talent pipeline for themselves.

NYT | June 19, 2021

You know the old adage: if something is too good to be true, it probably is… CNBC reports that “malware is being hidden in free versions of games like NBA 2K19, Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 5, The Sims 4 and Jurassic World Evolution”. Parents should be on the lookout for their kids acquiring games from these pirate sites — aside from being, you know, a little bit criminal, these bootleg programs may “quietly use the computer’s processing power to mine cryptocurrencies for… hackers”. It’s a multi million dollar enterprise, so if the pirates are paying you, have at it! However, if hackers are jamming your processing power and paying zero doge for the privilege, it may be time to start budgeting with your kid for the real stuff. 

CNBC | June 25, 2021

The Financial Times reports that video games are becoming less violent. “A study of [last] month’s E3 trade event … found that 33 percent of the games shown at the event contained no violence, almost double the number identified in 2019.”

Financial Times | June 29, 2021

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#KIDSTHESEDAYS Part 3

Zen Wants to get PAID!

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For many kids, an allowance is the first, sweet step toward financial freedom. Of course, in a digital world, money has many forms, and it can be tough for kids to keep it straight. How does money get onto a debit card? How much is “a lot” of money? And, of course, HOW DO I GET MY FREE DOLLAR?

If we had a nickel…

The bottom line is, conversations about money can be easy and stress-free, and the easiest way to make that happen is to Start Early. How do your kids feel about money? Are they interested in earning it? Do they know what it looks like??

We like that Zen has a plan. Ask your kids about their plans, and let us know what you hear!

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#KIDSTHESEDAYS Part 2

Kehero Talks Value

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What we value influences how we think about and spend our money.

It’s no different for kids.

Talking about value, values, and even self worth, can give parents and kids an opportunity to imagine what a “rich life” might look like, regardless of the amount of money you have.

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Your Kids Know More Than You: NFT Edition

The ABCs of NFTs.

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Just when you thought you had a handle on cryptocurrency, there’s a new frontier — non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are, suddenly, everywhere, and the term sounds like it requires a Master of Econ to understand it. Don’t panic. You’re already pretty familiar with fungible goods, since the most common one is money. A $20 bill or a Bitcoin is fungible, Picasso’s “Guernica” is not.

Are we having fungible yet? 

Fungibility, which sadly has nothing to do with mushrooms, refers to any good that is mutually interchangeable with another. A $20 bill has a fixed value, and it’s functionally identical to all $20 in that currency. Shares in a company are fungible — a share in GameStop is the same as any other share in GameStop. Commodities work in the same way: the market agrees on the price of a barrel of oil or an ounce of gold, as long as it meets a “basis grade” standard. Regular cryptocurrencies are fungible tokens (FTs): Bitcoins are digital, but all have the same value.

Contrast this with your child’s crayon drawing attached to your fridge: could you exchange that for a precise dollar amount? Maybe Grandma would buy it… if the price were right, but your bank almost certainly won’t, as that (charming) doodle is non-fungible. It’s a unique artifact with no set value, and it’s not intrinsically interchangeable with other works or assets.

Welcome to the NFT party

A non-fungible token is a digital object that’s one of a kind. The ownership of the object is traceable, standardized through the same blockchain technology that enables cryptocurrencies. (A blockchain is an impenetrable ledger of transactions shared across a network, allowing users to store both cryptocurrencies and NFTs in a secure digital wallet.) This technology enables users to officially “own” an image, video, or even a tweet. Although someone can still take a screenshot or otherwise copy your prized piece of multimedia, they won’t have the unique code that proves it truly belongs to them. Since these things are one of a kind, they’re worth exactly as much (or as little) as someone else will pay for them.

So which kind of token is better?

There is no right answer to this. Cryptocurrency fungible tokens (FTs) fluctuate in value, but at least that value is universally agreed upon. At any given moment, an Ether is worth as much as an Ether, nothing more or less. This makes FTs liquid, since you can easily sell them, and it makes them (reasonably) reliable, since you can know their current worth.

NFTs are tougher to value. Because they’re unique, it’s difficult to know the market value until you try to sell one. Of course, uniqueness signals scarcity, and that scarcity is driving demand, with year over year growth up 38 060%. 

So, is this a bubble or a wise investment? If the Cryptopunks know, they’re not saying. 

We’re happy to watch from the cheap seats.

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What your kids can learn by playing Jenga

You take a block from the bottom and you put on top. That’s how you build a financial future: You just don’t stop

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When you want to teach your kids about money, lessons from Jenga may not come to mind. After all, what do wooden blocks have to do with budgets and stocks? 

And it’s true: You’re better off starting with Monopoly.

But children’s brains are like sponges, and every minute you spend with them is a teaching opportunity. So why not play up the metaphors contained within the game of stacking blocks?

Three personal finance lessons from Jenga

1️⃣ Keep it simple. How many tabletop games have all of their instructions embedded in their jingle? “You take a block from the bottom, you put it on top, that’s how you build a tower, you just don’t stop.” If they made a jingle for Risk, it’d be 25 minutes long. The simplicity means just about anyone in the household can play, provided they’re old enough not to eat the blocks. When it comes to money, your basic plan should be similarly singably simple. For example, Elizabeth Warren’s famous 50/30/20 plan, in which you spend 50% of your monthly income on needs, 30% on wants, and either save or pay debts with the remaining 20%.  

2️⃣ Maintain a strong base. If you take all the blocks from the bottom and put them all on top, your tower will collapse. Similarly, you shouldn’t use your entire life savings to buy a new car. Keep the base strong, and use what you can spare to keep building.

3️⃣ Take calculated risks. When your turn comes, you have to take a block. That means you could topple the tower and lose the game. But Jenga pros know there are good risks, like taking the center blocks before the sides to keep the base strong.

Finally, let your kids know that Jenga is derived from the Swahili word meaning “to build.” And personal finance is all about building wealth over the long term. 

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What your kids can learn by playing Monopoly

You can’t collect $200 unless you pass GO, sure, but there’s more to it than that

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The first time you ever held a $100 bill in your hands, you were probably playing Monopoly.

The legendary Parker Brothers game has long been an introduction to high finance for kids around the world. In these days of social distance, there’s a good chance you’ve pulled the box out of the closet for some screen-free family time. And as the game drags into its fourth hour, you may ask yourself: What are the lessons from Monopoly, really? What exactly is this game teaching my children? And is it correct?

Here’s a breakdown of three key lessons from Monopoly:

1️⃣ Always keep cash on hand. Investopedia explains: “If you aimlessly move around the Monopoly board buying up everything in sight, when the time comes to pay your financial obligations, you are likely to run out of cash.” This aligns nicely with our basic rules of personal finance.

2️⃣ But not too much: You need to invest to win. As Gordon Pape recalls, “in the middle of our Monopoly game my grandson became excited by the fact he had more cash in his account than any of the other players. We paused for a few minutes while his mother explained that was because he had not invested in any houses for his properties.”

3️⃣ Think long term. There’s a reason they invented the Speed Die — the regular version of the game can go on for hours as you wait for everyone else to go bankrupt. But there’s a bright side to that tedium: It’s just like saving for the long term. The winner is the player who can plan ahead. And in our anecdotal experience, it’s also the player with the scottie dog.

There are, of course, more lessons from Monopoly. Generate passive income, own utilities, and drive hard bargains. But start with these three and see where you go.

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Why “buy the dip” is good advice for stocks

“Buy the dip” is something financial types repeat when the market goes down. What does it mean? It’s really just a spin on the old standard “Buy low, sell high.” And like most mantras, it’s great advice that’s hard to follow. Sure, I’ll buy low, but when is it low? Is it going to go […]

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“Buy the dip” is something financial types repeat when the market goes down. What does it mean?

It’s really just a spin on the old standard “Buy low, sell high.” And like most mantras, it’s great advice that’s hard to follow. Sure, I’ll buy low, but when is it low? Is it going to go lower? 

So buy the dip, but is this the dip? Is it going to dip lower? When’s the dippiest dip going to happen? 

Buy the dip applies to all the dips.

The good news: If you’re not a professional day trader, it probably doesn’t matter. For the average investor in it for the long haul, a dip tends to be a good deal. When the market dips, stocks are cheaper so you can buy more of them. But really, you should always be buying: Dips, peaks, valleys, spikes, and everything else. It’s why Dollar Cost Averaging is a thing, and a thing worth doing.

Historically, the market has generally climbed back to where it was — and beyond. In the long run, you’re likely to come out ahead. Yes, it might take a while, and yes, you may not get the absolute best deal. But it’s still good to buy the dip — because it’s good to invest.


Wealthie Works Daily, Inc publishes content that builds financial literacy for parents, kids, and families.

Wealthie does not offer investment advice. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal. Content presented by Wealthie is provided for general investment education and informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy specific securities.

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What’s a stock market correction?

When the market drops 10%, it doesn’t necessarily mean things are right.

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It recently became official: We’re into stock market correction territory. What does that actually mean?

In the world of investing, a correction is a drop of 10% or more in the middle of a long-term rise in the price of a stock, bond, or the whole market. It means things are generally going in the right direction, and now they’re going to slow their roll a smidge. 

So does a correction mean the market is now, by the first dictionary definition of the word, correct? Not quite. There is the theory that a quick price drop means investors have suddenly figured out that a particular stock was overvalued and “fixed” that mistake. In the case of the current correction, investors are selling stock of companies that may be, or have been, affected by the coronavirus. Only time will tell if this correction was, well, correct.

A stock market correction may or may not be correct.

Should you be worried? If you have a diversified portfolio designed with your time horizons in mind, probably not! Stock-market corrections have happened 26 times since the Second World War, (including) twice in 2018 alone! The main thing to know is that on average, the losses are made up within four months. And during that time, younger investors have a chance to buy the dip.