3 charts for you today:
In the last 7 days the United States has administered more than 21 million COVID-19 vaccinations, which is equivalent to roughly 6.5% of the entire US population receiving a dose in a single week (data from Our World In Data).
Pump those numbers up
The pace being set in the US is now among the fastest in the world, surpassing even the UK's best week from the last few months. If the US maintains this pace (a big "if") it would mean full vaccination coverage could take just another ~15 weeks, assuming "full coverage" is around 75% of a population having had 2 doses. Despite a slower start, Australia, Canada and the EU are also ramping up their programmes.
Although the US acceleration has been impressive, it's still not enough to top the global cumulative leaderboard.Israel remains at the top of that table, having administered 117 doses per 100 people (i.e. they are on their second round for most people).
P.S. The 4 countries shown in the chart plus the EU accounts for 95%+ of our readership, but if we haven't plotted your country here we recommend you check out the full data set from Our World In Data.
Credit Suisse is not having a great year.
The Swiss investment bank and wealth manager announced this week that it expected to make an eye-watering $4.7bn loss from the blow-up of Archegos Capital. For context, that single loss would be enough to wipe out the entire bank's net profits from any single year from 2011-2020.
I O U, A LOT
The Archegos story is a tale as old as time on Wall Street — a hedge fund with a previously decent track record bought a bunch of stocks with a lot of leverage (i.e. money it didn't have) and everything was fine until those stocks dared to go down. The leverage magnified the losses and Archegos collapsed, leaving the banks that extended them the leverage frantically selling shares as their prices crashed. This meme sums up what happened next, but basically Credit Suisse got left holding the (biggest) bag.
For Credit Suisse the Archegos blow-up follows on from the Greensill blow-up and has left the bank reeling financially and reputationally, with 7 senior executives losing their jobs this week according to the FT.
After 26 years of business, LG Electronics has announced its plans to shut down its smartphone division.
Another one bites the dust
Like Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola and many other phone manufacturers that were once heavyweights, LG has struggled to carve out a significant piece of the smartphone market as competition has intensified since 2010.
According to Counterpoint research, LG smartphones accounted for just 2% of the global market last year, a significant drop from 2013-2014 when LG was making waves with its "G Series" of phones. We couldn't get our hands on the full market share data, but like so many trends, Google searches often tell the same story.
Life's (still) good
LG may have given up on its smartphone business, but it's far from going out of business — its mobile communications business only made up around 8% of its total revenue last year.
Indeed, the more you look into LG, the more you realise that smartphones are probably going to be the one electrical product they don't sell. TVs, computer screens, washing machines, solar panels, refrigerators, camera equipment, sensors, speakers and air conditioners are just some of the products sold by the South Korean giant, which in total brought in more than $55bn of revenue last year.
1) Forbes has released its 35th annual list of the world's billionaires. This year they counted 2,755 billionaires, 660 more than a year ago. Collectively the wealth of the group hit $13.1 trillion.
2) The US is reportedly in the middle of a ketchup shortage, as demand for single-use ketchup packets has jumped 13% in the last year. Looks like supply just can't ketchup to demand (sorry).
3) Patreon, the platform that helps creators monetize their fanbase, has tripled its valuation to ~$4bn after raising a fresh round of $155m in financing.
4) Wise Bread have found what they believe is the highest paying cash back credit card on the market. $200 bonus offer AND 3% cash back? Say no more.**
5) A teenager saved a 12-year-old boy that was more than 800 miles away after witnessing him crash his quad-bike on a live TikTok stream.
6) The personal data of more than 530 million Facebook accounts has been leaked online. The data reportedly includes "phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and — in some cases — email addresses".
**This is a sponsored snack.
