Month: July 2018

Wednesday 18th July 2018

Dave is away from his desk this week, but he asked us to re-visit an article about the effects of AI on the job market. At Money Truths we have always thought the scare mongering about how robots would take most of our jobs was too extreme. We believe that some jobs are more at risk than others, but overall we believed the increase in productivity would just create different jobs. And it’s interesting to note that almost two years after we made this very point, a report release by accountancy giant PwC, found AI would boost economic growth, creating new roles as others fell away.

It says Artificial Intelligence (AI) will create as many jobs in the UK as it will displace over the next 20 years, but it warned there would be “winners and losers” by industry sector, with many jobs likely to change.

Robocop – coming soon to a street near you….

A police bomb disposal robot has already been used to kill a gunman in America. It happened in July in Dallas.

The robot doesn’t look like Tom Cruise. It didn’t deliver any of the pithy lines or slick moves that Hollywood screenwriters might dream up.… Click here to read more

Wednesday, 11th July 2018

In search of the next big thing….

Late on Friday night, I watched the Drone Champions League on Freesports….

I happened on the coverage thanks to a bit of channel-surfing….

But I stuck around to digest the peculiar spectacle of grown men, boys and even young girls engaged in high-speed drone racing along obstacle courses – with the pilots wearing first-person-view (FPV) goggles that provide the view from the drone’s ‘cockpit’….

• Something new….

They were flying the small craft under bridges, through inflatable hoops, negotiating sharp bends. All at high-speed….

There was some genuine skill on show. Some young kids were smashing the adult fliers. This is a sport where being 10-years-old is no bar to becoming the big star….

I won’t become a fan of the sport. It’s not my thing….

But it was interesting to see how a sport that didn’t exist 10-years ago has gained traction and is starting to attract huge participation rates and a growing audience….

It’s a good lesson for an old fuddy-duddy….

Nothing stays the same. What was is not forever. There’s always something new coming along….

• Looking for the next big thing….

Investors are always looking out for the next big thing….… Click here to read more

Wednesday, 4th July 2018

Back to the future….

It’s been a spectacular plummet – just like one of those cartoon pianos falling out of the sky….

From a high of almost $20,000 in mid-December 2017, the value of Bitcoin dropped below the $6,000 level last week….

It’s rallied a bit since. But it shows no signs of steaming back to the peaks of last December….

Plenty of eager-faced punters were loading up on the ‘new gold’ ahead of the Christmas drop-off. Now, they’re sitting on losses approaching 70% – and licking their wounds….

Bitcoin is shaping up to be a record-breaker of a bubble – as measured by its top-to- subsequent-bottom plummet….

After the dot-com crash of the late 1990s, the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 78% of its value….

Bitcoin is closing in on that unwanted record – and fast….

• Great fun….

Here at Money Truths, we hate to say we told you so. But, and we say so in a spirit of complete and utter humility, we did….

To us, it was always obvious that there was a mania at work and that Bitcoin was a speculation bubble….

It’s one reason why we were one of the very few financial publishers that we know of who did not seek to cash-in on the crypto-craze by peddling Bitcoin- or crypto-related products and services for big money….… Click here to read more