Serious Interest

Hi, today we explore: (1) Berkshire Hathaway's mega cash pile, (2) Women's share of America's top jobs, (3) NFTs are way past their peak. TOGETHER WITH Today's Topics Hi! If you’re part of the 62% of Americans who [want to ban]( the changing of the clocks and took it upon yourself to personally ditch the switch yesterday, we’d just like to say a quick hello from the past… Today we’re exploring: - Serious interest: Berkshire Hathaway's cash pile now comes with some major perks. - Bridging the gap: The share of women in the highest-paying jobs. - Not Fully Thriving: NFT marketplace OpenSea is struggling. Have feedback for us? Just hit reply — we'd love to hear from you! [Read this on the web instead]( Serious interest Although likely not enough to offset the rising cost of living, you may have noticed a few extra dollars in your savings account each month, as interest rate rises begin to trickle through to higher savings. Warren Buffett certainly has noticed: his sprawling conglomerate, Berkshire Hathway, is sitting on a cool $157 billion of cash and cash equivalents, the highest figure ever recorded by the company. In the days of near-zero interest rates, that didn’t mean much — but, in the most recent quarter, that [cash pile]( bolstered income by $1.7 billion, with most of this being lent to the US government via short-term treasuries. Saving up for something good Berkshire is America’s seventh-largest company; an expansive industrial giant with businesses in insurance, railways, energy, manufacturing, retailing… and an enormous portfolio of investments in companies including Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and more. Still led by the dynamic duo of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, who are 93 and 99 years old, respectively, modern Berkshire remains an outlier in corporate America — an empire built through prudent dealmaking and investing over more than 60 years. At the moment, Buffett and Munger seem content to do something that’s often hard for prolific dealmakers: sit tight, keep their financial powder dry, and wait for an opportunity. Degrees of separation Less than a month after Harvard professor Dr. Claudia Goldin became the third woman to be awarded the [Nobel Prize]( in Economics for her research on the gender pay gap, a new Pew Research [report]( has detailed just how far women have climbed in the ranks of America’s most lucrative careers. Since 1980, the proportion of women in the top 10 highest-paying occupations in the US — which, in 2021, meant median earnings equal to $136,000 on average — has increased some 22 percentage points to 35%. As several of these occupations require advanced degrees, it follows that a greater share of women have undertaken doctorates in Pharmacy (40% vs. 63%), Medicine (23% vs. 50%), and Dentistry (13% vs. 51%) from 1980 to 2021. The relative presence of women has increased significantly in nearly all of these professions over the same period, with the proportion of women dentists more than quadrupling, and women physicians tripling, in the last 40 years. However, it’s the pharmacy industry where women have formed the greatest generality, as they now comprise 61% of pharmacists in the US in 2021 — with a family-friendly [working model]( and more egalitarian earnings within the industry, explaining at least some of the relative popularity of the pharmacist career path among women. Even so, in all the other top 10 highest-paying jobs, women remain in the minority. [Sponsored by Sidebar]( You wouldn’t captain a ship without having learned to sail a boat. But assigning someone with zero training to lead a team? For many companies, that’s no problem. The average age of a leader is 33 — but the average age to start leadership training is 42. 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[Join the waitlist for Sidebar and accelerate your career]( Not Fully Thriving OpenSea, the self-proclaimed “first and largest” marketplace for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), is reportedly laying off 50% of its [current staff]( as the platform looks to cut costs and reorganize amidst the continued fall of the digital tokens. The days of tweets selling as NFTs, “crypto punks”, and celebrities [going on Jimmy Fallon]( to talk about their “bored apes”, are now a very distant memory. Indeed, NFT sales on OpenSea have fallen almost 99% from their trading volume heights of ~$4.9 billion, slipping below $50m in October. That’s the lowest figure on record since January 2021 — suggesting that we’re well past “[peak NFT](. Tokenistic At the height of NFT mania, everyone from Paris Hilton and Eminem to Twitter’s founder / ex-X exec [Jack Dorsey]( seemed to be getting involved in buying, selling, and [shilling]( the buzzy tokens. When digital artist Beeple sold an NFT for $69m, it spurred a flood of digital music, art, games, and meme assets that quickly oversaturated the market — which wasn’t helped by [high-profile scam allegations](. Although the tokens seem to still hold some cultural worth — they featured heavily in the latest Halloween Simpsons special [last night]( — the diminished standing of the technology seems to have proven the original naysayers right: NFTs were a solution looking for a problem. More Data • One dedicated Liverpool FC superfan has just celebrated his remarkable 1,000th consecutive match, in a streak spanning 19 unforgettable [years](. • Shipping giant Maersk reported a 92% quarterly profit plunge and is on track to cut 10,000 jobs this year, as freight [demand sinks](. • The Marvels is set to premiere this weekend... but it's on track to open to $75m - $80m, far below its hefty $250m budget and adding to [Marvel Studios' woes](. • According to the Folkman Training Database, supervisors are aged 33 on average — but the mean age on leadership training programs is 42. [Sidebar]( does it differently with a highly customized, [peer-focused program]( helping you unlock growth at any point of your career.** • A Canadian millionaire is taking it upon himself to combat local homelessness by building 99 tiny homes for those [in need](. **This is sponsored content. Hi-Viz • Mapping where the 40,000+ US troops are located across the [Middle East](. • LVMH is expanding its extensive empire, acquiring American eyewear brand [Barton Perreira]( for $80 million — check out our second-ever Sunday deep dive on the [luxury industry](. Thanks for reading. See you on Wednesday! Have some [feedback](mailto:daily@chartr.co?subject=Feedback&body=Hi%2C%0A%0AI%20like%20the%20newsletters%2C%20but%20I%20had%20a%20thought%20for%20you...) or want to [sponsor]( this newsletter? Not a subscriber? Sign up for free below. [Subscribe]( Copyright © 2023 CHARTR LIMITED, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: CHARTR LIMITED Kemp House 152 - 160 City RoadLondon, EC1V 2NX United Kingdom [Add us to your address book]( Don't want charts in your inbox anymore? Break our hearts and [unsubscribe](.