Hi, I’m Azeem Azhar. I convene Exponential View to help us understand how our societies and political economy will change under the force of rapidly accelerating technologies. Every Wednesday, I do this in Charts of the Week.
CHART OF THE WEEK
The blockbuster era
We can’t depend on the movie business, such as it is, to take care of cinema1.
In a brilliant series of blog posts, James McMahon shows that industrial Hollywood is on a mission to reduce revenue risk. It’s succeeding: the volatility of earnings has been steadily dropping, while creating a monoculture of blockbusters in the process.
DEPT OF RISK AND UNCERTAINTY
Objectively subjective
In quantitative research, scientists have to make a series of decisions about data analysis, which can create widely different outcomes. This is worrying on its own, but it’s also a reminder of the importance of repeating experiments and studies.Â
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7c2359d5-b4bc-4179-90c6-ec944689dc8c_1356x884.png)
The alphabet of sustainability
It seems like boards tend to understand the S in ESG much better than the E, especially when it comes to carbon emissions. This is hardly surprising: as we develop better tools to understand the climate impact of organisations (e.g., scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions), we also uncover how opaque a company’s emissions can be. It’s similarly tricky to estimate climate risk.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fddebc34f-83fd-4f68-9ca8-ce6014de9745_1354x1246.png)
Lowers all boats
When bonds zag, stocks zig, and vice versa. Not so this year. This year is one of the first in a century when stocks and bonds have both fallen, comparable only in scale to the 1931 collapse.Â
Bloomberg predicts that the UK will likely be the first economy to fall into a slump, with the US leading the way out of the crisis.Â
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5d73ad23-e45f-4a7f-a659-f6027ae1e8ae_1348x1074.png)
Starlink in their eyes
The use of Starlink satellites is increasing in Ukraine, essentially keeping the country - and its military - online. The question remains on who will fund this in the longer term - SpaceX, the US government, or even the EU.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4463204-00b3-449a-9b32-eba05ee0af63_1356x626.png)
WEEKLY SURVEY
Source: Engadget