Chapter 1: What industry did Claude Design disrupt?
Welcome to The Curve Weekly, where we read the finance news so you don't have to. I'm Vic Harris, I'm a finance professional, and I have made a career out of making money for other people.
And I'm Sophie Hallwright, I'm an ex-TV radio producer, and I was really sick and tired of not understanding anything about money, so we started this podcast. Quick little thank you to the whole team behind the scenes at The Curve, particularly our producer Emily Rigby and our social media manager Lucy Munro.
In today's episode, we give you a bit of an update on what's happening with oil. The Strait of Hormuz is open, it's closed, it's open, it's closed. We can't keep up, but we're trying. And will we head into a global recession?
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who you may not have heard of, I know for me I always think of Steve Jobs, but he was there for 15 years and he's just been replaced. We do an overview on the last 50 years of Apple, what we've seen over that time and what we think is coming.
There's been a massive update in the AI space and it's causing major ripple effects and begs the question, is every designer about to lose their job?
But before we get into talking about the headlines, we've got a very exciting celebration. This is not going to be a regular thing. We may have had two in a row, but we have got a new look. The Curve has had a little rebrand, you may have noticed, and we're going to have a quick little celebration of that. It's a good day to be the curve. We've got a new look, haven't we? We do.
We're going to glow up. Had a little glow. Look, it's been, I would say, 99% positive feedback, although I was looking through some of the comments this morning. Actually, someone commented saying, change is great, but I'm disappointed that it's lost its feminine touch. It feels masculine, finance, bro.
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Chapter 2: How is the current oil situation affecting the global economy?
I was like, does it? Hey, what about all the positive? I know. I actually was also thinking that. Me, classic. Look at the one negative comment. It's always the way, isn't it? I don't think it looks.
finance bro-y well it's too late I mean yeah I mean like thanks for your feedback but unfortunately we've committed we are way too deep in the rebrand no actually sorry your sister comments feminine can still feel strong which is true yeah yeah I like that yeah she's like a designer so we'll take that on board I think
Also, didn't your mum teach you if you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything?
Yeah, although we have done the whole, like, we're always open to feedback. So now it's like, shit, the floodgates are open.
Did they want to know?
Did they not? It's funny that the one person that commented something, like, quite negative was the only comment from a man.
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Chapter 3: What changes are happening with Apple's leadership?
And it's, like, quite negative. Anyway, thanks for all the positive feedback. We love it. We're a big fan. I'm really into it. The one thing I did want to say, actually, is when we put the video up, Emily made the most amazing video of us, like, wandering around London.
Me on a bike. I know. She's like, again, again, another take.
She's like, you're doing great. You're doing great, sweetie. Come on, just one more. Vic trying to talk, remember her line, bike.
Chapter 4: Why are companies like Adobe and Figma impacted by AI advancements?
What's this? oh my god stop oh my god rebrand yeah oh my god oh my god oh my god cute so lucy's just popped in with the kids you see on the podcast she's like guys so for people that can't see this right now there's like a little really cute wooden box with like what look like the most beautiful strawberries like they're all facing up
I wanted to tell a funny story about the champagne. So I'm sitting at home last night and I'm like, right, this is a really big week. We've got a rebrand. We've announced some really exciting things and we're so proud of Vic and Soph. So I was like, I'm going to order some champagne. I'm just going to do it on Uber Eats because it's really easy in London to do that.
I'm scared of where this is going. I actually ordered a really bougie brand. First time in six years I've done a rebrand. We're going to get the nice stuff, you know? Anyway, I order it. It arrives at my house. I'm in my dressing gown, my hair's in a towel. The guy opens the door and I'm like, he's like, can I please have your ID? And I was like, yes, of course, here you go.
And he's like, oh, it's saying you're underage. And I was like, well, I'm not. Here's my ID. And it wouldn't go through. Anyway. I'm in the green because he was like, do you know what? I'm going to have to just like say I've returned it. He takes it, gives it to me, walks upstairs.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of Primark's spin-off into its own company?
I walk upstairs and I just get a card reverted from Uber Eats.
You got refunded.
I got refunded. So it was free champagne. So it was free champagne. But then I opened the bag. I was like, it's still too good to be true. I'd done that thing where it was like, don't replace if it's not in stock. Because, like, don't send me a shit one. You know, like, the girls would be like, oh.
Or replace it with, like, a Verve or something.
You're like, oh. Something that's, like, three times the price.
No, that is really annoying.
And so, because I was like, I don't want them to just send me, like, a sexy. You know, like, I want the nice one. This arrives and I pull it out and it's Waitrose brand champagne.
Oh, I still think it looks nice.
It looks so chic. And with the strawberries. It's actually fine because I got it for free. And then, do you know what? It's going to taste so much better. We spent the actual money on the strawbs and the flowers. Oh, guys. So we got to do extra. And so now we can have champagne with strawberries in it because it's stunning. And yeah, just congratulations. Love you guys.
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Chapter 6: What lessons can be learned from the recent market reactions?
And I remember they did their rebrand a couple of years ago. And I'm so, it's so obvious that I struggle with change because I remember when she rebranded the business. And at the time, like immediately for the first week, I was like, oh, I loved the old branding. I really don't like it. And then two weeks later, I'm obsessed with the new brand.
It's really interesting, the psychology around, like when you know something and it's familiar, it's really weird when it changes.
It's crazy how easily you forget old branding as well. Yeah. You're kind of, even seeing ours after seeing the new stuff for like a day, I'm like, oh yeah, that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oil, oil, oil. Gosh, it is hard to... Not pick up a newspaper without an oil headline.
Oh, yeah. It's everywhere.
It's dominating. It is being a bit of a whipsaw week. What does whipsaw mean? Is that whiplash, the word you're looking for? When things go like up, down, left, right. Anyway. I was talking to a friend and he was like, oh, I heard the Strait of Hormuz is open.
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Chapter 7: How can investors navigate potential global recession risks?
And I was like, is it? And I was like, oh. And so I went on and I was like, oh, it is. And then literally like five minutes later, it's like, it's closed. It's honestly, it's, yeah. I mean, we've been talking about this for two months now. And when it first started, Trump was like, this is only in the last two weeks.
And yeah, there's probably people that believed him, but it's been nearly two months now.
I feel like with this whole energy disruption, when it first happened, and even really in the last few weeks, I've been, I guess, of the mindset that hopefully this is then going to mean that we fast track other energy solutions, the world becomes a bit more, I don't know, proactive and not relying on oil, blah, blah, blah.
Like I sort of saw it as maybe this is like a really good thing for the world.
And I think it will be in the long run there will be fast tracking of like renewable energy projects and stuff but right now like the European Union has now started to drop opposition of like new oil and gas sites in the Arctic like there's lots of things where they said no no no no we're not going to do any more oil and gas exploration and now they're reverting they have to like
Europe is really, really struggling, and it doesn't matter now if you get your oil from the Middle East or not. The whole oil price is still up near $100, and that impacts everyone. Even if you're getting your oil from the US, the price of that oil is $100 a barrel, so it's very much... Yeah, still hurting everyone in the world no matter where you get your oil from.
And to put that in perspective, people haven't been listening. Like we were at $56 in December and we're now at $100 four months later. There's double. That has to flow through to inflation.
And so on the inflation point, because I've seen lots of things floating around and people talking about, you know, if in the next three months we don't get –
this moving it's already a macro like global issue but people saying if this continues for a certain period of time it's pretty likely that the whole world goes into a recession I know you can't say yes that's true because obviously we don't know what's going to happen but why is that impact so enormous the point where the whole world would fall into a recession if this doesn't open
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Chapter 8: What humorous story did Vic share about a comedy night?
It's not like gold. It's not like cotton. It's not like coffee. It's not, you know, like that kind of stuff. Cool. You can cut out or you can swap to other things. Like there is just the world is still so reliant on energy and you can't just swap from anything. oil to another source of energy. There's not enough. And it starts impacting people.
If you're in the depths of winter and you can't afford to put your heater on and you're an older lady, there's people's lives that start being at risk and stuff. It's quite detrimental.
I did want to ask you a question on a global recession is one thing, but I've also seen headlines about the
countries being able to like protect consumers and shield them from suffering from an enormous but then there's countries who would have like completely different impacts as flow-ons from what's happening why and how is that a thing so like if we take Australia for example they had very little reserves when we went into this war so they didn't have a lot of days or weeks as other countries so they're kind of like oh shit
Europe is a different camp. It's very reliant on – it's a big, big energy producer. It doesn't produce anything itself, so therefore it's impacted but in a different way. Then you've got the Asian countries, which get 90% of their oil from the Middle East. So they're running out right now. They've got no oil, some of them. So it's like everyone's slightly differently impacted.
But also you've got countries that – can do things that can support consumers. So they could be like, you know what, we... we'll give you an energy subsidy or we will, yes, the price of oil has doubled and therefore, you know, your electricity or your power bill or your, you know, we can do things that can help with ease the burden of inflation.
So is it more the idea that the governments or people that have the money to be able to help their country, they can be the ones that take the hit rather than people in the country?
They'll have to step in. But... Then you're taking on debt as a country and then that has to be paid back and that's higher taxes down the track. We're already still dealing with all the COVID payouts that have led to high tax rates.
So that's an example of the government stepping in and a more, I guess, wealthy economy and saying, don't worry, we'll help you out. But then they go into more debt.
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