This Week in Charts 8-12-22
This article is a transcript of a Youtube video. The production and others in the series can be found here.
Hello friends, and welcome to This Week in Charts. On the show this week we’ll parse through some data running through my network in corporate charts, 3D printing news, and financial technology. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications to keep up with the news this week. Here’s our headlines:
Corporate Charts
- Shifting consumer trends in Europe;
- Evolution of earnings;
- And expectations of life in the Metaverse.
3D Printing News
- Two advancements in 3D printed battery fabrications;
- And an acquisition of high-speed additive manufacturing systems.
Financial Technology
- Why American investors are increasingly looking towards Canadian startups;
- A look at mortgage values in America;
- And some thoughts on inflation.
With that, let’s dive into the news.
Corporate Charts
European consumers have increasingly been opting for more affordable retailers. According to our latest European Consumer Pulse Survey, of the consumers who decided to shop at a different retailer in the previous four to six weeks, most turned to discounters. Consumers also reported lower use of other retail formats—particularly specialty grocery and convenience stores, which tend to be higher priced.
Earnings Growth
On-the-job training has an impact that is felt throughout a worker’s lifetime. In these charts, the light blue represents earnings attributable to job experience, and dark blue indicates earnings attributable to the skills needed to start. In the first visualization, we see that pilots have a powerful acceleration effect in their earnings as time goes on, nearly double that of physicians. On this chart, we see a similar measurement between restaurant staff, who can expect higher wages due to experience, and maintenance workers, whose experience counts for very little of their compensation.
The metaverse—a virtual-reality space in which users interact—is gaining momentum. For some consumers, it is still a relatively far-off concept, and industry experts anticipate it will be a fleeting fad. However, results of a recent McKinsey consumer survey suggest that it will stick around. On average, survey respondents expect to spend nearly four hours a day in the metaverse in five years. On this chart, we see the survey results by age group. Unsurprisingly, older generations don’t see much participation on their part, while Millenials and GenZ expect close to five hours of interaction per day. What are your expectations about the metaverse?
Sodium-Ion Batteries
As additive manufacturing gains momentum in energy applications, R&D professionals gain more flexibility to experiment with novel techniques. We’ve got two stories in this vein, the first of which follows a team at Tohoku University, who have documented a technique of 3d printing carbon micro-lattice electrodes. Using stereolithography, or SLA printing, they print a latticed polymer and then shrink the entire structure using pyrolysis. The product is a sodium-ion battery, which the team understands to have better power and performance than current industry standard lithium-ion batteries. Further, battery designs can be tailored to fit, matching the geometry of its operational use case.
Lithium-Ion Batteries
Another energy application of additive production comes from a team of materials scientists at UCLA, where the US Department of Energy has granted nearly $1 million towards the development of 3D printed lithium-ion batteries. The project’s description states the intent of utilizing the complex lattice structure made possible by additive manufacturing to create a new generation of lithium-ion batteries with faster charging and greater storage capacity. Further, this project not only improves energy storage and consumption but also investigates the use of recycled materials in fabrication.
Acquisition: dp Polar
Seasoned additive manufacturing conglomerate 3D Systems makes news with another acquisition, this time of German-based dp Polar. Dp Polar developed a unique system of continuous high-speed deposition-based 3D printing. This system features a stationary print head situated above a large-scale, segmented, rotating print platform. Further, the system is modular, allowing the integration of other technologies like multi-material extrusion heads or pick-and-place robotics which can integrate electronics into the body during fabrication or remove finished parts. Essentially, the system is modularized and automated, both key terms in the era of smart manufacturing.
Financial Technology
courtesty of The Fintech Collective
Canadian Fintech
In a complicated chain of cross-border development, Canadian fintech startups targeting American markets are becoming increasingly attractive to American investors. With their eyes on the hundreds of thousands of US investment managers responsible for the trillions of dollars of investable assets, these startups find that they can scale quickly and profitably by targeting American markets with American money. Some notable financings include CapIntel, an automated workflow program for financial managers; FutureVault, a secure digital storage and file exchange program; ReachStack, an AI-powered email communication, content-sharing, and revenue nurturing platform; and Advisor Websites which, true to its name, creates interesting and dynamic websites for financial advisors.
Homeownership has reached a new milestone in the USA, with almost half of mortgages homes considered equity-rich, meaning that the owner had at least 50% equity in the property. This is a culmination of nine straight quarters of equity growth, following soaring valuations in the pandemic and ever-greater down payments by new buyers. Trends indicate that homeowners will continue to build on this equity, growing their net worth and, importantly, potential financial leverage.
Inflation
Inflation is here, and consumers are feeling the pinch. There’s no doubt that, particularly in America, we live in a consumer economy fueled by debt, which requires spending spending and more spending. In quarter two of this year, credit card debt surged 13% as inflation surpassed real wage growth. Consumers are advised to “rethink their expectations” regarding their financial health as the cost of living races upwards at its fastest pace in nearly four decades. Credit card companies, though, are bullish, as they are flooded with applications. A survey by CNBC states that American feel they need to make just about $107,000 a year to feel financially stable, which is nearly double the national average and realistically out of reach of the common man. With more and more Americans shackled by debt, for how long can we continue to call this the land of the free?
And on that note, we come to the end of today’s show. Whether you’re a new viewer or a seasoned fan, I suggest you watch this recent video: a declaration of my principles when reporting the news. If you found any of the topics interesting, drop a comment to let me know, and I’ll focus my research in that direction. As always, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week on This Week in Charts.
~ fïn ~
