Top Financial Stories 2021

At this time of year I ask myself what were the biggest stories of the year ending in business/financial news. Last year Covid-related stories of course dominated. This year ... not so much. In fact, I've found it pretty easy to keep Covid, inclusive of Delta's dawn and whatever Omicron has on, off of this list altogether.  

The issue of ransomware -- more akin to a computer virus than to the coronavirus -- dominated the late spring, so it gets its props here in two consecutive months. This was also a year when it became obvious that fossil fuels aren't going away, and two of our monthly entries are devoted to that point. 

I'll break it down by month as usual, and as is my habit I will avoid assigning priority among the various monthly champions. 

 January: Robinhood app. What looks at first glance like a David-and-Goliath story played out in the final days of this month as a buying campaign for GameStop (GME). The rise of GME delivers a multi-billion dollar hit to some of the key short-sellers of Wall Street, including Citadel. The Robinhood app is the slingshot.  Robinhood is new eye of GameStop storm as outrage grows | Reuters

February: Acceptance of Climate Change. PGIM put out an impressive report on climate changes and investment strategies. Yes, the major players on stock markets around the world, the securities sell-side (brokers) and the buy-side (stock buying institutions from pensions to hedge funds) and their various consultancies devoted to both sides agree that climate change is real and that investment strategies must take account of it. BUT ... see what we have to say further along about fossil fuels. 

March: Submarine Power Cable. Cyprus, Israel and Greece agree on a EuroAsia Interconnector expected to be operational by 2025. It should inspire a few singings of "it's a small world after all." 

April: Return to the Moon? And since this is a small world, and a large population, it is natural that humans reach out thinking of other worlds and the space through which they all travel. SpaceX signs a contract with NASA to this end.

May: Ransomware attack shuts down a critical Texas-to-NJ pipeline. In a simple ransomware attack (fancier types are possible) a computer hack blocks a system so that it cannot operate properly, and the hackers offer to remove the block for a cash payment. 

June: Ransomware attacks become a central subject of discussion between U.S. President Biden and Russian President Putin.  Russia is the geographical home of many such attacks, and the U.S. government, though it is not prepared to say Putin controls such operations, is sure that Putin could close them down if he wanted to. It seems he does not. 

July: Continued Use of Fossil Fuels. OPEC members (strictly speaking OPEC+ members, including Russia) agree to increase oil production, in a two-phase process, both phases taking place within 2022. OPEC+ Reaches Agreement On Oil Output Increase; Russia To Boost Production (rferl.org)

August: Journalism against corruption. This month saw the indictment of a high-profile figure in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Malta. [Later this year the same theme, journalists against corruption, shows up in the Nobel Peace Prize.] 

September: Instead of Commuting. The pandemic disrupted the ordinary way of doing business by "commuting"/driving to the office in the morning, and driving home later in the day. For many office workers, it is now preferable to stay home and appear in the office virtually, via Zoom, as portrayed above. Zoom's management makes a misstep this month. It tries to take over Five9, a contact center company. It is unable to persuade Mr. Market that the acquisition has synergy. The deal falls apart, and the stock price celebrates the demise of the deal.   Zoom Video Stock Gains on Report ISS Urges Five9 Holders to Reject Takeover Bid - TheStreet

October: Global Supply Chains. Disruptions become all too clear, and the visual for this fact about 2021 emerges: stacked-up shipping. Nearly half a million shipping containers are stuck off the coast of Southern California as the ports operate below capacity (msn.com)

November: Continued Use of Fossil Fuels II. Facing inflation, President Biden authorizes the release of 50 billion gallons of the stuff from the US Strategic Reserve in hopes of calming fuel prices. His administration presumes that fuel prices are behind the broader inflationary numbers.  

December: Cryptocurrencies. Split verdict in the Bitcoin trial. Many hoped that this trial would throw some light on the question of who was in fact the mysterious "Satoshi" who created Bitcoin, the mother of all cryptocurrencies. It did not.  One of the plausible candidates for that honor persuaded a juror that he was not stealing credit from another of those plausible candidates. He then claimed vindication in terms that suggested he has proven that he was Satoshi. He has not.  

I am happy to have shared another year with all of you.