By David Farrell
Canadian political cartoonist joins Washington Post
Michael de Adder began his career working for several Halifax newspapers. Last week it was announced that he will be contributing political cartoons to the online and print editions of The Washington Post.
The time is right for Ottawa to fix Canada’s disgraceful telecom system
The Rogers-Shaw lobbyists are putting a full-court press on Ottawa to approve their merger, which isn’t set to close until next year.
They argue that only enterprises of the greatest size can finance the needed upgrading of the Canadian telecom system to fifth-generation networks (5G).
Yet somehow the Big 3 managed to reap a collective profit of $5.4 billion last year while comfortably financing their multiyear investment in 5G upgrading.
And it’s just counterintuitive that a Rogers facing a huge capital outlay for 5G would load its balance sheet with more debt to buy Shaw. Unless, of course, 5G as a rationale for the merger is a canard. – David Olive, The Star
Who are the 10 biggest pandemic profiteers?
There are 43 newly minted billionaires since the beginning of the pandemic, when there were 614. A number of new billionaires joined the list after initial public offerings (IPOs) of stock in companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, and Snowflake.
The increase in the combined wealth of the 15 billionaires with the greatest growth in absolute wealth was $563 billion or 82 percent. The wealth growth of just these 15 represents over 40 percent of the wealth growth among all billionaires. Topping the list are Elon Musk ($137.5 billion richer, 559 percent), Jeff Bezos ($65 billion, 58 percent) and Mark Zuckerberg ($47 billion, 86 percent). – Chuck Collins, Inequality
US retail ad spend almost $2B in Jan./Feb.
According to MediaRadar’s latest analysis, the retail industry spent $1.8 billion on advertising during January and February 2021, a 24 percent decline from the same period last year.
Between 2017 and 2020, ad spend decreased an average of 34 percent each year, a post-holiday phenomenon that marketers have come to expect. MediaRadar forecasts Q1 2021 retail ad spend will reach $2.73 billion, which represents a 33 percent dip in ad spend between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. – Nina Aghadianian, The AList
The ‘truthiness’ of words coined by celebrities
Famous folks can start all kinds of trends, from hairstyles to clothing to, yes, even words. We're still trying to make "fetch" happen, but here is a batch of celebrity-coined words such as “smize” that have actually caught on with the public. – Word Genius
Nearly 1B connected in China
China will have 983.7 million internet users this year, thanks to an unexpected 8.6% boost in 2020, the fastest expansion its online population has seen since 2012. We previously forecast that it would take several more years for China’s internet users to hit the magical 1-billion mark, but we now project this unprecedented milestone will come by the end of next year.
Growth will decelerate to 3.6% this year, but that will still be enough for 70.4% of the population to qualify as internet users, a threshold China has never reached before. For comparison, in India only 45.0% of the population will be online this year. In the most advanced countries, penetration is usually in the mid-80% range. China is getting close to that status. – Ethan Cramer-Flood, eMarketer
Harry earns a paycheque
You may now address Prince Harry by a new title: chief impact officer.
That's the job the Duke of Sussex has taken at BetterUp, a San Francisco-based startup focused on coaching and mental health. – Steven Musil, CNET
