What we’re reading (3/6)
“Visa And Mastercard Suspend Russian Operations” (BBC). “Visa and Mastercard have announced they will suspend all operations in Russia in protest at its invasion of Ukraine. But Russia's major banks, including state-backed Sberbank, have already downplayed the impact the move will have on consumers. Shoppers will still be able to use Mastercard and Visa-branded cards for purchases within Russia until they reach their expiry dates. But cards issued abroad will no longer work at businesses or ATMs in Russia.”
“Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Puts Cryptocurrencies At The Heart Of War” (Vanity Fair). “[W]hile the leaders of the tech companies are resolute in the side of history they want to be on, those in the crypto world are clearly struggling with this moral quandary over the role crypto is now playing to help the Russians. ‘The question is, is there any world or any scenario in which breaking the anonymity or decentralized nature of crypto is considered necessary, and if so, would this qualify? If Putin wanted to use crypto to get around certain sanctions, would even the most orthodox crypto maximalist be supportive of that?’ a crypto trader and investor told me.”
“Investors Start Buying Ukraine, Russia Bonds” (Wall Street Journal). “Investors are starting to buy Ukrainian and Russian bonds that plummeted to discounted prices, betting that they will recover if the war between the two countries comes to an end. The trade is high-risk, given uncertainty over what Ukraine will look like after the war and how long the financial cordon around Russia will last. It also poses reputational dangers because of the human cost of the conflict and the increasing unwillingness of many financial institutions and corporations to be associated with Russia in any way.”
“Russia Says Sovereign Bond Payments Depend On Sanctions” (Reuters). “Russia's sovereign bond payments to non-residents will depend on sanctions imposed by the West, the country's finance ministry said on Sunday, stoking fears of a technical default on tens of billions of dollars of eurobonds. The ministry said it would service and pay sovereign debts in full and on time but that payments would depend on the sanctions that Western governments imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.”
“This Is Peak Subscription” (Vanity Fair). “The maturity of the subscription market varies by industry, but in some of the categories best known for these kinds of services, there are indicators that the ceiling is close, at least in the United States. In streaming video, Netflix has long been the industry standard, but its growth rate has begun to decline, and some analysts believe that it doesn’t have much room left to find new eyeballs in America…when ViacomCBS recently announced that it was changing its name to Paramount to go all in on its subscription streaming platform, Paramount Plus, the company’s stock sank—an indicator, he said, that investors are unsure of how much money is left to be made.”
