Innehållsförteckning för 1041 från MoneyWeek

“The public markets are vital to wealth creation – we should make listing easier” On 1 March 2021 a new firm registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to list its shares. It is called Do It Again Corp. (yes, really) and has been formed “for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganisation or similar business combination with one or more businesses”. It is basically raising lots of cash to do – well, something – something you will find out about later. If this reminds you of the (unverified) story of the company floated during the South Sea Bubble to carry out an undertaking “of great advantage but no one to know what it is”, you won’t be alone. There is much…

Ann Herbert, the general manager of Nike’s North American division, resigned after a Bloomberg investigation found that her 19-year-old son had used a credit card in her name to buy $100,000-worth of limited-edition trainers to flip them for a profit from his reseller business, West Coast Streetwear, reports Lauren Thomas on CNBC. She had been at the company for over 25 years. Reality TV star Molly-Mae Hague (pictured) ofLove Island fame has “fallen foul” of the UK’s advertising watchdog after she ran an £8,000 prize draw on Instagram that “failed to prove that winners had been randomly and fairly picked”, reports the BBC. Hague has previously been pulled up by the regulator for failing to make clear that one of her posts was an advertisement for an online clothes shop.…

The US SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) boom is coming to Europe, says Matthew Field in The Daily Telegraph. Also known as “blank-cheque companies”, SPACs are shell firms that list on the stockmarket in order to raise cash. They then use the money to merge with another company. SPACs provide an alternative route to a public stockmarket listing that can be more straightforward than the traditional initial public offering. The latest SPAC boom started with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space business, which went public through an $800m SPAC in 2019, says Field. Once confined to the US tech scene, European start-ups are now in the crosshairs too: UK electric-vehicle business Arrival is listing on the Nasdaq through a $660m SPAC. New SPAC vehicles are being launched in Frankfurt and Amsterdam.…

Copper prices have eclipsed $9,000 a tonne for the first time in almost a decade, says Neil Hume in the Financial Times. Trading around $9,200 this week, the world’s “most important industrial metal” was last at these levels in the summer of 2011. Copper prices have almost doubled over the past 12 months. The rally has been driven by soaring Chinese copper imports and bets that “green-tinged infrastructure projects” in Europe and America will boost long-term demand. Goldman Sachs analysts say the metal is heading for “its biggest supply deficit in a decade” and think prices could hit $10,500 in a year. Other raw materials, such as nickel and iron ore, are also buoyant as investors look for “a hedge against rising inflation”.…

Online review site Trustpilot has announced plans to list in London as it seeks to capitalise on buoyant demand from investors, says Tim Bradshaw in the Financial Times. The flotation gives the UK “a significant tech initial public offering”. The company, founded in 2007, has benefited from the rise in e-commerce as a result of the pandemic lockdowns. Sales surged by 25% last year to $102m, with 20,000 companies paying monthly fees for the right to display the Trustpilot five-star “TrustBox” rating on their homepage. Trustpilot’s pre-tax losses narrowed to $12.9m last year. It is looking to raise around $50m and achieve a market value of around £1bn.…

Last week Facebook made a dramatic U-turn, announcing that it will restore news to its Australian users, says the BBC. Facebook had blocked news after a dispute over a law that “would force it and Google to pay news publishers for content”. While the government claims that the rules will set up a “fairer negotiation process” between the tech giants and news companies over the value of news content, Google and Facebook insist they are unfair, since “it gets little commercial gain from news content”. The reversal isn’t a complete defeat for Facebook, says the Financial Times. The Australian government has agreed to make changes “that grant Facebook more leeway to negotiate with publishers”. The concessions will give it more “bargaining power” in its talks with News Corp, “the world’s…

Slightly over a year into his time as chancellor, some of us are starting to wonder if adding up is not exactly Rishi Sunak’s strong point. The furlough scheme has cost close to £50bn already – far more than the initial estimates – and it is still running. Eat Out To Help Out was meant to cost £500m, but came in at £849m. We can now add the Future Fund to the list. It was launched at the height of the first lockdown, when deal-making was frozen, to prevent a generation of start-ups being wiped out because they couldn’t stage a fresh funding round. At the time, the government put aside £500m in funding. The scheme closed on 31 January and the final amount spent has just been announced. It…

Global bond markets have been in a bull market since the early 1980s. That marked the end of the last major inflationary period seen in developed markets. Most bonds pay a fixed income (“coupon”). So while rising inflation is bad (because it makes any fixed payment less attractive), falling inflation is very appealing (the “real” value of the fixed payment increases as inflation falls). This has been reflected in declining bond yields (and thus rising bond prices) for the past 40 years or so. However, the end of the pandemic might also mark an end to the bull market, as governments pump money into their economies to try to prop up the post-Covid-19 recovery and central banks resolve to ignore inflation in favour of full employment. Last week we looked…

Africa’s corrosive politics Editorial The Economist Politics always costs money, but “the link between cash and power is especially corrosive” in Africa, says The Economist. In rich democracies parties pick candidates and subsidise their campaigns. In Africa, politicians pay “vast sums to run on aparty ticket” and then spend more on campaigns and handouts to voters, which serve as both bribes and “hints of future generosity”. In office, MPs continue to spend, much of it on constituents’ welfare. “This is bad for Africa.” It excludes the “impecunious and honest” from politics and encourages MPs to abuse power to recoup their costs. Any largesse is likely to be selective, and as long as states are weak, it makes sense for voters to ask MPs for handouts instead of better laws or…

cityam.com “We must grasp every lever that has the potential to pull us out of the present quagmire”, says Jason Ash. One such is to embrace circularity. A “circular economy” seeks to recycle all materials used in production and decouple growth from the usual “take-make-dispose” model. Sounds worthy, but it’s also “an opportunity to generate new economic value for businesses”. As well as getting companies “ahead of the curve” when it comes to likely new legislation, and putting their operations on amore sustainable basis, embracing the circular economy can bring financial benefits and make firms more attractive to ethical consumers. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that the consumer-goods market could save up to $700bn on materials alone by turning to circular models of production. Ikea now spends less on resources…

Since Boris Johnson announced England’s roadmap out of lockdown, holiday bookings have boomed. But many of us are opting for a staycation in the UK rather than risk borders and foreign climes this year. Interest in holiday cottage rentals has jumped by 300% compared with the last lockdown, according to holiday-home rental site Independent Cottages. “Many policies won’t cover Covid-19-related cancellation costs” If you are planning a staycation this year, have you considered insurance? As we worry about lockdowns or falling ill on holiday, many of us are opting to take out an insurance policy to protect what we’ve spent on a trip. Since February 2020 demand for domestic travel-insurance policies has risen by a third, according to Compare the Market. But before you pay for travel insurance to protect…

Hertz (Nasdaq: HTZGQ) is a US car-rental group. Its business was “wiped out” by Covid-19 and it filed for bankruptcy last May, buried under $19bn of debt, says David Moadel on investorplace.com. In June its share price shot up after Reddit traders started investing en masse, just as they did with GameStop recently, at which point the firm planned to sell $500m worth of stocks to ride out the pandemic. It only ditched the plan after the US Securities and Exchange Commission began to scrutinise it. The stock then crashed again. In the past year it’s slumped by 87.6%.…

£26.95, swig.co.uk I have written up a detailed review of the extraordinary portfolio of Monte Santoccio wines on my website, including a preview of a wine never before seen on our shores, the 2013 Amarone della Valpolicella, Classico Black Label, and they are all extraordinary creations. I have chosen to focus this week’s column on the ripasso in the range as the value for money afforded here is astounding. Winemaker Nicola Ferrari was formerly an assistant to the legendary Valpolicella producer Giuseppe Quintarelli, and he and his wife Laura now make their wines from four hectares of organically farmed vines in Fumane. Their wines are as honest and accurate as any I have tasted from this region and yet there is fascinating detail to be found behind every label. Uncommon…

$1.8m How much you need to be worth in order to count yourself among the 1% of wealthiest residents in Britain, according to Knight Frank. Monaco requires $7.9m, the most of the 30 locations looked at by the estate agency – that’s 400 times more than Kenya. 1,000 The cost in Emirati dirhams (£194) of the world’s “most expensive biryani”, created by the Bombay Borough Indian restaurant in Dubai. The rice dish, served on a giant platter, is topped with edible 23-carat gold leaf. $64 The cost of a “gorgeous” Chinese “retro fruit bowl” as advertised by online retail giant Amazon. The advertisement, aimed at a US audience, went viral in China, where social-media users pointed out that the “essential decoration” costs just $4 there: it is used as a…

Rodney Whiston-Dew, a former lawyer currently serving a ten-year prison sentence for “cheating the taxman”, is being sued by former client Baroness Jacqueline van Zuylen (pictured, left, with daughter Allegra) for allegedly swindling her out of more than £2m, writes Jonathan Ames in The Times. The Baroness told the High Court that Whiston-Dew, 70, had persuaded her to invest in a Seychelles-based trust in 2011 and 2012, but that she never saw her money again. Whiston-Dew was jailed in 2017 for being one of “five Eton and Oxbridge-educated businessmen who conned celebrities and others” into putting millions into a fake “green” investment scheme. In 2019, he was ordered to pay back more than £3m or face having his sentence extended. Van Zuylen, who court papers describe as “financially unsophisticated”, will…

Is inflation a “tiger” or a “pussycat”? asks Gurpreet Narwan in The Times. Andy Haldane, the chief economist at the Bank of England, has warned that UK consumer price inflation will soon spike from its current level of 0.7% as the economy reopens. Haldane likened inflation to a “tiger” that has been “stirred by the extraordinary events… of the past 12 months”. It could prove “difficult to tame”. Not all of his colleagues agree. Deputy governor Dave Ramsden notes that UK inflation expectations (as measured by surveys) remain “well anchored” for now. Bond markets totter Concern about a more inflationary outlook rocked global bond markets last week. As bond prices fell, the US ten-year Treasury bond yield spiked towards 1.6%, a significant rise from the 0.9% level at which it…

“For Lent this year I decided to give up investing in gold miners. My priest said this was like giving up broccoli; for Lent you are meant to forgo something that feels good. I replied that the Church banned self-flagellation in the 14th century… Gold has been a dog since August… we’ve had riots in the streets of major US cities… the storming of the US Capitol… a record high US budget deficit, massive money printing… Yet gold and gold miners have behaved like the stock that fails to go up on good news… Investors may have concluded that tech offers better anti-fragility... even in a pandemic, Amazon and Google make money… [others say] that gold is suffering from competition in the shape of bitcoin, the new kid on the…

Five to buy Dechra Pharmaceuticals Mail on Sunday Millions of people around the world took advantage of stay-at-home orders to add a pet to their families. The trend bodes well for animal-drugs group Dechra Pharmaceuticals, whose products range from thyroid pills for cats and dogs to flea treatments for rabbits; it also produces premium pet food. The company posted “upbeat” half-year results to 31 December, “including an 8% increase in the dividend”. Brokers have forecast a 12% increase in sales to £576m and an 18% jump in profits to £137m for the full year. Dechra is a well-run business with sound prospects. 3,430p Persimmon The Sunday Telegraph House-price growth in the past year has fuelled concern about affordability, so investors might be put off buying housebuilders such as Persimmon because…

• French yoghurt maker Danone, under attack from activist shareholders, has said that it will split the roles of chief executive and chairman, currently both held by Emmanuel Faber (pictured), says Dasha Afanasieva on Breakingviews. But its proposal that Faber should stay on for now hardly suggests an “appetite for change”. And if Faber keeps control, it makes it harder to break up his empire and sell underperforming brands, especially since Danone has refused to take this chance to say it is “reviewing business lines and considering asset sales”. Given that Danone’s shares have returned just 14% since he took charge in 2014, it’s no wonder these new plans have met with a “cool response” from the market. • The “trading mania” that engulfed video-game retailer GameStop in January has…

Last summer the 27 countries making up the European Union banded together to order a common pool of vaccines, securing up to 2.6 billion doses, or more than five for every person, says The Times. Yet even now only 6% of the EU’s population has received even a first dose. Any “semblance of solidarity” in the bloc is now beginning to unravel. Austria and Denmark have announced a pact with Israel; Slovakia has received its first shipment of doses from Russia; Poland is in talks to follow Hungary in acquiring China’s Sinopharm vaccine. Frustration at the slow pace of progress has prompted several other countries to make their own arrangements, even as French president Emmanuel Macron and Clément Beaune, his Europe minister, “sing the praises of the EU’s joint procurement…

• Former England footballer David Beckham has “netted a £4.5m paper profit as Cellular Goods, the cannabis company that he has backed, blazed higher on its stockmarket debut” last Friday, says The Times. Beckham (pictured) had paid £250,000 for his 5% stake at the end of January, paying 1p a share. The shares were then offered before the initial public offering at 5p, and closed 280% higher after their first day of trading, at 19p. • Adam Neumann, the co-founder and former chief executive of shared-office-space provider WeWork, is set to reap an extra $50m “special payout” and receive a five-year extension to a $430m loan made to him in 2019 by WeWork’s majority shareholder, Softbank, says The Wall Street Journal. The proposed agreement would end “a bitter dispute” involving…

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, interest rates across the developed world were cut to near 0%. As a result, the world’s central banks have been forced to experiment with ever more radical monetary policies, from negative interest rates to quantitative easing (QE – printing money to buy government bonds and other assets). One such monetary policy tool is “yield curve control”. So what is it? A “yield curve” compares the yield on bonds with the same credit quality, but different maturities (the maturity is the length of time before the bond repays its face value). So the Treasury yield curve (the most important one) shows how interest rates vary across different maturities of US government debt. A healthy yield curve slopes upwards from left to right –in…

“I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare. My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.” Bill Gates (pictured) on the Tesla founder’s purchase of bitcoins, quoted in The Times “I joined John Lewis because it had two golf courses and five oceangoing yachts.” Mark Price, former managing director of John Lewis’s food arm Waitrose, on the mutual’s generous perks, quoted in The Sunday Times “The rich are worried all the time – about who’s after your money, and why people want to be your friend. So I wouldn’t want to be super-rich.” Former newspaper and Today programme editor Sarah Sands, quoted in The Times “A lot of the old…

spectator.co.uk We Brits are often belittled for being terrible at learning foreign languages, says Rory Sutherland. But there is a reason for this. Consider the questions: do I need to learn another language? And what language should I learn? Swedes asking themselves this will probably answer: “Yes”, and: “English” – Swedes need English not only to speak to English people, but also to speak with Danes or Finns. For most native English speakers, the respective answers are likely to be: “I’m not sure”, and: “No idea”. The world “really does not have a second second-language”. Additionally, Swedes gain fluency in English with every new word learned. Knowing Swedish is useless until your Swedish is better than the typical Swede’s English. There’s an economic dimension too. It might be worth $20,000…

Despite the economy suffering its biggest setback in 300 years, we think the building blocks are in place for a strong recovery in the second half of 2021. We believe there is considerable pent-up demand for both leisure and retail spending, and thanks to the high savings rate during lockdown consumption could be a driver of strong GDP growth from the summer onwards. In addition, the Brexit trade agreement gives businesses certainty around trading arrangements with the EU, allowing companies to invest with confidence. Assuming the pandemic doesn’t take an unexpected turn for the worse, the pace of economic recovery could be higher than many people expect. While the events of the last year have taken a heavy toll on individuals, companies and the economy, we face the future with…

Billionaire hedge-fund manager Sir Chris Hohn was paid a record £343m after a year of soaring profits at his Children’s Investment Fund, say James Hurley and Dominic Walsh in The Times. Equivalent to £940,000 a day, it’s thought to be the highest amount ever paid to an individual in Britain. Hohn is one of the UK’s biggest taxpayers, paying around £58m in tax last year. A woman walking along the beach in Thailand after a rainstorm found a lump of “whale vomit” worth almost £190,000, says Sam Baker on Mailonline. Siriporn Niamrin and her neighbours confirmed that the “oval-shaped find” was a 12-inch wide, 24-inch long, 15lb chunk of ambergris, a rare ingredient used in the perfume industry. If verified by experts, its estimated value will be £186,500.…

People have mined the Garpenberg region of central Sweden for 2,500 years, says WirtchaftsWoche. This year it will yield copious amounts of zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver for Boliden, a Swedish mining and smelting group. The prices of these metals have risen by an average of 50% over the past 12 months, fuelled by strong Chinese demand. The Garpenberg mine, one of the world’s most efficient, should contribute a quarter of the group’s revenue this year. Boliden also mines in Finland and Ireland and tops up its earnings by offering its smelting operations to other miners. Profits should jump by 10% this year. The stock looks reasonably valued on a trailing price/earnings (p/e) ratio of 13 and yields 2.5%.…

Good news for Johnson & Johnson (J&J): the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has formally approved the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, says Oliver Milman in The Observer. The move comes after studies showed that it was not only 85% effective in preventing severe cases of Covid-19, but also offered “complete protection” against Covid-19-related hospitalisation and death after 28 days. As aresult, the J&J vaccine will become only the third jab to be authorised for use in the United States. What’s more, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are already in circulation, J&J’s vaccine only needs asingle shot and “can be stored at common refrigerator temperatures for up to three months”. J&J’s vaccine may have been approved, but it may take some time to reach American arms, say Hannah Kuchler…

The fall in Covid-19 deaths in England is running around three weeks ahead of estimates, prompting calls for lockdown to be eased more rapidly, says Sarah Knapton in The Times. Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling Group (SPI-M) projections on 10 February were key to deciding the lockdown roadmap, for the purposes of which SPI-M estimated that vaccines would reduce infection risk by 30%-60% after the second dose. Real world data suggests they reduce the risk of infection by 70% after one dose and 85% after the second. Both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs are now known to be 80% effective in preventing serious illness in the over-80s. Just 12 weeks after Margaret Keenan received the first jab, hope is quickly taking the place of “deep despair”, says The Times. By the…

Nine months ago, the big question was whether Boris Johnson would remain prime minister until 2023. Now, all the attention isfixed on Nicola Sturgeon’s future as Scottish First Minister. Despite the ongoing enquiry into whether she misled the Scottish Parliament (see page 8), or was involved in a conspiracy against former SNP leader Alex Salmond (pictured), the bookies still expect her to remain in Holyrood for the foreseeable future. Indeed, Ladbrokes has her at 1/2 (66.7%) to survive until next year, but 6/4 (40%) on her to go before 2022. These odds seem a fair reflection of the ever-changing reality so I can’t see any significant value in taking either side of the bet. Instead, I’d recommend betting on the number of seats that the SNP will get in the…

Sundar Pichai, boss of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has topped a list of America’s 100 most “overpaid” chief executives after earning $280.6m in 2019, says Keith Griffith in the Daily Mail. The rankings, released by non-profit shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, compares executive compensation to a company’s shareholder return over the past five years to determine “excess” pay. In 2019, Pichai earned 1,085 times the median employee’s pay at Alphabet; As You Sow calculates that around 95% of that is “excessive”. David Zaslav of broadcaster Discovery was second on the list, having earned $45.8m; CVS Health Corporation’s Larry J. Merlo was third, with $36.5m. Discovery, Disney and Comcast were singled out as the worst of the “repeat offenders”, paying high sums despite “consistently” underperforming. CEO pay increased by 14%…

Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive, Berkshire Hathaway “Fixed-income investors worldwide – whether pension funds, insurance companies or retirees – face a bleak future,” warns Warren Buffett, America’s best-known investor. In the latest annual letter to shareholders in his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway, the 90-year-old notes that “bonds are not the place to be these days”. Buffett’s words came hot on the heels of a tough week for global bond markets. Across the world, bond yields have risen (and thus prices fallen) as investors start to bet on inflation making a comeback as the pandemic recedes. That could finally mark an end to the multi-decade bond bull market that has driven yields to record low levels (see main story). As Buffett notes: “Can you believe that the income recently available…

theconversation.com A particular concern post-Covid-19 is youth unemployment, say Anna Rebmann and Ute Stephan. By November 2020, unemployment for 16- to 24-year-olds had increased by 3% since the start of the pandemic – this amounts to 68,000 young people who want jobs but can’t find one. Many more have lost jobs and stopped looking. There are fears this could lead to longterm “scarring” effects. Government interventions to deal with this could be more effective if they aimed to develop “entrepreneurial competencies” aswell as offering work experience. These are the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for people who want to start their own firms. Some may believe that entrepreneurs are born not made, and clearly it’s not the right route for everybody, but there is “robust evidence” that the basic skills…

Have you heard the one about the commodity in short supply and rising sharply owing to demand from China? It’s the narrative that never stops giving, and this time the protagonist is tin. Tin prices are at highs not seen since 2011. The metal we associate with cans and pan alleys is essential to the rapidly-expanding global electronics industry, semiconductors, the rollout of 5G mobile communication networks and the Internet of Things (IoT), whereby more and more appliances and gadgets, ranging from toasters to self-driving cars, are connected online. It is a key ingredient of the substance that binds together circuit boards and wiring, otherwise known as solder. Around 50% of annual tin demand is used in this way; it is considered “the glue of metals”. Electric vehicles, where tin…

Best of the Best (Aim: BOTB) runs online car competitions. In January the company posted impressive results for the six months to 31 October: sales soared from £7.6m to £22.1m compared with the same period last year, while pretax profits climbed from £1.4m to £6.8m, notes Harry Wise on thisismoney.co.uk. The group, which moved completely online in July 2019 two decades after its founder opened the first site at Heathrow airport, has managed to reduce costs significantly in recent months and has no debt. The shares have soared by 588% in 12 months.…

Darren Berg (born Frederick Darren Muskopf) was born in 1963 in Ashland, Oregon, and later enrolled at the University of Oregon. He dropped out after being accused of taking advantage of his position as treasurer of the local college fraternity to embezzle $21,000 to fund a bus company. A decade later he was convicted of fraud for stealing around $30,000 in a cheque kiting scam that he ran from his advertising  agency. In 2001 he started investment company Meridian Group in Seattle and bus company MTR Western in 2003. What was the scam? Meridian Group ran various investment funds that promised high returns from mortgage-backed securities. Within two years, Berg had started diverting large sums from those funds, estimated to be at least $32m, to fund the development of the…

“Maserati’s new MC20 supercar is a delectable slice of exotica with an interior crafted like a work of art” “Maserati is back,” says Wolfgang Gomoll in Auto Express. The new MC20 supercar steps out of the shadows of Ferrari and McLaren and represents the start of a new era for the brand, with the model sliding into “the sweet spot between racetrack agility and everyday comfort”. The car was developed on a heavy diet of €5bn from the Fiat Chrysler parent company and is to be the first in a series of new models. Judging by its performance, it has more than eaten its fill. Under the bonnet beats a mighty 622bhp, three-litre, V6 engine, Maserati’s first in-house design in more than 20 years. Making the leap straight to twin…

Snakes and Ladders The Great British Social Mobility Myth Selina Todd Chatto & Windus, £25 The pandemic has thrown a spotlight onto social inequality in Britain, says Andrew Anthony in The Observer. Snakes and Ladders, by historian Selina Todd, arrives therefore at a moment of “particular relevance”. The book takes on what the author sees as the myth of British social mobility. Her argument is that although the 1950s and 1960s saw “significant surges in dynamic social movement” between the classes – there was a large expansion in the managerial class as industry modernised, for example – this then stalled, then went into reverse in the 1980s. In her view, the only solution is a return to the economic policies of the 1970s, “only with a more egalitarian vision”. There…

•“It’s one thing for Gwyneth Paltrow to flog candles smelling of her noonie,” says Lorraine Kelly in The Sun. But encouraging people suffering from Covid-19 to embark on “a keto and plant-based diet”, which involves fasting, and take infrared saunas, is crossing the line. While all “very trendy and expensive”, it is “bordering on quackery… and our NHS experts agree”. Paltrow (pictured) is a “cold-eyed, canny businesswoman, who has made a fortune flogging her ‘wacky’ products – and Covid-19 is now yet another income stream. Idon’t begrudge her making a crust, and if people are daft enough to pay fortunes for a range of increasingly bizarre products, then that’s their choice. But I strongly object to any medical advice that could possibly do actual harm.” Those with “more money than…

In times of profound change, “the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists”. So said American philosopher Eric Hoffer. Here on the back page, we know nothing. Our ignorance, of course, makes us humble. And our overweening modesty gives us an insufferable edge. What follows is the tale of how it got sharpened. Once, working late from our offices in Buenos Aires, we noticed a low hum, a whirring noise, coming from a room at the front of the office building. Opening the door, we found wires running across the floor to a bank of computers, with two fans blowing air on them to cool them down. What was going on? “Oh,” explained our colleague, a bit sheepishly, the next day, “we’re mining…