Monetrix

  China has approximately 687 cities, and the real-estate sector accounts for a staggering 30% of the country's total GDP. For decades, this has allowed the country to maintain rapid economic growth, and the ghost cities are evidence of China's reliance on real estate to fuel growth. However, with Evergrande's $300 billion debt looming large, China's real-estate market has faced the brunt.     Reasons for the Boom in the real estate sector of China Real estate was once a sector considered safe and profitable to invest in China. Even the Chinese government encouraged investment in real estate. The property market, more or less constantly rising in price, had been a significant driver of increasing wealth and household income in the country for decades. On the supply side, the government earns significant income from leasing land to developers, as according to China's constitution, all land in China belongs to the state. Investment property speculation is ...

      It barely took a week for Sam Bankman-Fried aka SBF’s net worth from $16 Billion to less than a billion dollars. Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford law professors, launched the trading company Alameda Research in 2017, only a few years after completing his MIT degree. He established FTX in 2019, and it rode the cryptocurrency bull market to a $18 billion valuation in July 2021, attracting investments from firms including BlackRock, Softbank and Sequoia Capital. Then on 2 nd November, 2022, his empire began to collapse.   Alameda Research   Alameda saw early success arbitraging the price of bitcoin between different markets (mainly the US and Japan). As it expanded, it engaged in a variety of trades and dozens of investments in crypto projects. That includes having a substantial holding in the Solana blockchain, a rival to Ethereum developed by an ex-Qualcomm engineer.   FTX   Short for “Futures Exchange”, FTX was launched soon ...

  BNPL which stands for Buy Now Pay Later is a payment mode that has become very popular in the recent past especially for e-commerce platforms.  As the name suggests, it allows the users to buy goods and defer the payment by a week, a month or more in instalments, which are mostly interest free. In 2021 there were roughly 5 million BNPL users in online retail and the number is projected to grow to 30 million by 2026. Some of the major players in BNPL app market in India are Zest Money, Freecharge Pay Later, Lazy Pay, Paytm Postpaid, MobiKwik, Amazon Pay Later, Flipkart Pay Later, etc.   Distinction Between BNPL and Credit Card BNPL seems very similar to credit cards which allow the user to pay a bill at a later date. However, it is not the same. Credit cards are instruments issued to someone who meets the minimum income requirement and has a reliable credit history. It takes a few days’ time to get a credit card issued. Credit cards also charge an interest if a use...

What is Moonlighting? Working a second job after regular business hours is known as moonlighting. It means a worker may perform a regular 9 to 5 job as their main source of income while also working nights at another employment to supplement their income. The concept got named moonlighting as the phrase moonlighting means to work a covert job, particularly at night. Reasons behind Moonlighting Some of the factors that lead to an increase in the phenomenon of moonlighting across the world are low salaries and a lack of incentives to maintain a good standard of living. Many employees feel that their employers take advantage of them for higher profits. Along with this, the employees got dissatisfied with their tasks and obligations. They started to feel alienated within the organization because their superiors didn't value their efforts. Rising inflation is another factor that has compelled people to work two jobs to maintain a decent standard of living. Work-from-home culture...

The e-RUPI, a digital payment tool , was introduced by the prime minister on August 2. The main objective of e-RUPI is to connect with 190 million unbanked people in order to integrate them into the legal financial system and help bridge some of India's digital divide. It has the ability to ensure that every citizen has fair access to financial, medical, and social services . Confused as to how it will work and if it is the same as digital currency? Let’s understand it from the scratch.   Why do we need e-RUPI in the first place? Under 351 different programmes, the Central Government provides direct benefit transfers (DBT) to its citizens each year . Comparing the first half of 2021 to the same time in the previous year, the overall volume of DBT surged by about 37% to around INR 3.9 lakh crore. The transfer of pensions, fertiliser subsidies, the now-discontinued LPG subsidy, Covid-related income, and other benefits are appropriate inclusions in DBTs. However, there were seve...

  One of the first three chemical elements to form in the universe, this metal, billions of years later, is all set to become the “White Gold for Electric Mobility” , as economies all around the globe seek to transition away from the unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels for energy needs. You must have guessed it by now- this article is about Lithium batteries all set to take the center stage as a strategic resource of energy storage for the increasingly demanded electric vehicles worldwide.   Why is Lithium called White Gold?   Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk rightly agrees that “Lithium Batteries are the new oil” . Lithium remains the common denominator in all energy storage technologies. It is the most important and basic element used in batteries of mostly all of our electronic gadgets-our laptops, cell phones, computers, tablets and most importantly in the batteries powering electric mobility so much so that Electric vehicle growth will be responsible for more than ...

China has been on the path to overtaking the United States to become the world’s largest economy which was speculated to happen by 2024. Over the years, it has grown from a third-world country to a superpower. Today it has become one of the most significant trade partners and gained immense influence as a byproduct. However, China is currently facing a number of issues. The issues range from a youth uprising to severe debt issues.  The article discusses the reasons behind the bad shape of the economy and its looming impact. The Real Estate Bubble The Chinese economy and the housing market started growing after the 1979 reforms. This was also fueled by the intense migration of people from rural to urban areas for a better quality of life. Most of these were farmers who were frustrated by stagnant wages and looked for work in factories. In addition to this, owning houses was considered important for financial stability and marriage in China's culture.  Soon affordable housing be...