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Gracias @Manolok por sus comentarios.

Efectivamente todos los fondos que indica están disponibles en R4. Ignoro porqué en un principio solo supe encontrar los dos utilizados en mis cálculos anteriores.

Y efectivamente los cálculos cambian dramáticamente al tener en cuenta solamente clases sin cubrir divisa. Evidentemente la combinación de ambos fondos deja de aportar valor.

Prudent Wealth Prudent Capital 50% PW + 50% PC TAE (a) 8.03 5.72 6.90 Max DD en % (b) 7.34 9.62 8.46 Ratio a/b 1.09 0.60 0.82 Ulcer Index (c) 4.45 7.88 5.41 Ratio a/c 1.81 0.60 1.28 Max DD en días 267 496 320

Pienso que la lección a extraer de los cálculos efectuados es la tremenda importancia de cubrir o no cubrir divisa, especialmente en fondos de este nivel de rentabilidades. En este caso concreto cubrir empeora sustancialmente los resultados (de ahí que la combinación al 50% con el Prudent Capital los mejorara) . En otros casos evidentemente será al contrario.

Prudent Wealth Prudent Wealth H cubierto TAE (a) 8.03 7.06 Max DD en % (b) 7.34 7.77 Ratio a/b 1.09 0.91 Ulcer Index (c) 4.45 4.35 Ratio a/c 1.81 1.62 Max DD en días 267 499

La diferencia es especialmente importante en este dato estadístico, que no he sabido ver en ninguna plataforma estándar, que es el mayor número días consecutivos bajo el agua.

Me recuerda el título de una novela de hace años:

Last reply by Uhlan on Mon, 16 Aug 2021 07:35:27 +0000

inversionautodidacta:

Veo el crecimiento y sentido del segmento tratamiento de aguas, pero no mucho el de cosmético y suplementos alimenticios, quizás las sinergias pueden encontrarse en la distribución y fabricación, pero entiendo es un mercado totalmente diferente. En el tratamiento de aguas puede existir una oportunidad, el sector del agua creo será un ganador a futuro.

A falta de que la empresa publique en sus cuentas anuales las ventas y resultados por división, si se fija hasta la fecha 2020 que es hasta donde tengo datos (salvo a nivel EBIT que sí que los tengo), es la parte más rentable de la compañía con márgenes EBIT por encima del 25%.

Lo que hay que ver en el agua es si la empresa tiene opcionalidad de salir fuera y qué derechos tiene comprados para ello:

Aquí un anuncio interesante a finales del 2020 para que vea de lo que le hablo:

BRITA PRODUCTS TO ACQUIRE ALL RIGHTS TO BRITA BUSINESS IN AMERICAS

Water & Wastes Digest – 28 Dec 00 Brita Products to Acquire All Rights to Brita Business in Americas

The Brita Products Company, a principal subsidiary of The Clorox Company has announced an agreement with Brita GmbH of Germany to acquire full control of Brita

UK Prime Minister Recalls Parliament From Summer Recess Over Afghanistan

Authored by Lily Zhou via The Epoch Times,

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has requested MPs come back from summer recess to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, parliamentary authorities confirmed on Sunday.

They said the request has been granted by Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

On Sunday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani relinquished power as the Taliban entered Kabul, according to Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal, who confirmed there would be a transfer of power. Ghani reportedly left the country on Sunday.

“The Speaker of the House of Commons has granted a request from the government to recall the House at 9:30 a.m.—2:30 p.m on Wednesday, August 18 in relation to the situation in Afghanistan,” parliamentary authorities said in a statement.

Ministers and senior officials would meet on Sunday afternoon to discuss the worsening situation, Downing Street said.

It came as Britain and other Western countries were scrambling to get their remaining nationals out of the country before it was too late.

The lead elements of a 600-strong UK force—including Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade—were understood to be in the capital to assist with the operation.

The Taliban insisted that there would be no reprisals against Afghans who had worked for the government or for foreign countries and that they were seeking a peaceful transfer of power.

However, such assurances were greeted with scepticism by Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat, who said the priority had to be to get as many people as possible out of Kabul.

“This isn’t just about interpreters or guards. This is about those people who we trained in special forces to serve alongside us, those who helped us to understand the territory through our agencies and our diplomats,” Tugendhat told BBC News.

“This is the people who, on our encouragement, set up schools for girls. These people are all at risk now,” he said.

“The real danger is that we are going to see every female MP murdered, we are going to see ministers strung up on street lamps.”

Defence Committee chair Tobias Ellwood called for the dispatch of the Royal Navy carrier strike group to the region and urged the prime minister to convene an emergency conference of “like-minded nations” to see what could be done.

“I plead with the prime minister to think again. We have an ever-shrinking window of opportunity to recognise where this country is going as a failed state,” he told Times Radio.

“We can turn this around but it requires political will and courage. This is our moment to step forward,” Ellwood said.

“We could prevent this, otherwise history will judge us very, very harshly in not stepping in when we could do and allowing the state to fail.”

In response to accusations of betraying Afghanistan, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Saturday that “what comes next should not overshadow what we did during those 20 years.”

“And let’s look at other failed states where we did not intervene, such as Syria. The scale of suffering and terror in that country tragically surpasses anything Afghanistan has experienced,” Wallace wrote in an opinion article published in The Telegraph.

Wallace, who has been sceptical about the hasty withdrawal of Western military from Afghanistan, said he had tried to rally countries to stay in the country after the United States announced its withdrawal but had no success, as “weary publics and parliaments in country after country had no appetite.”

He argued that the United Kingdom can’t unilaterally go back to Afghanistan as some have suggested.

“A unilateral force would very quickly be viewed as an occupying force and, no matter how powerful the country that sends it, history shows us what happens to them in Afghanistan,” Wallace wrote.

“It would be arrogant to think we could solve Afghanistan unilaterally.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/16/2021 - 03:30

El horizonte temporal mínimo para estar en nuestros fondos son dos o tres años. Minuto 19

Europe’s largest lender to pay $575m for insurance assets in city as part of pivot to region

Europe’s largest lender to pay $575m for insurance assets in city as part of pivot to region

Biggest Covid outbreak this year coincides with signs of deeper structural shifts in the economy

El producto interior bruto (PIB) de Japón creció un 7,5% entre abril y junio en comparación con el mismo periodo del año anterior, impulsado por la recuperación del consumo, pero apenas avanza un 0,3% respecto al primer trimestre por la persistencia de la pandemia. Leer

I have just about completed the build of my 1913 Fairbanks Morse tractor. It has an H&M engine with an external radiator. The cylinder is a wet cast iron sleeve but the coolant jacket is steel. I am concerned about internal rust. What kind of coolant should one use that is an easy cleanup. Any suggestion is appreciated.

Hyatt Hotels ha firmado un acuerdo para la compra de Apple Leisure Group  (ALG), grupo turístico americano en manos de KKR y KSL Capital Partners, por 2.700 millones de dólares (2.300 millones de euros) en efectivo. Leer

GIC se convertirá en un inversor estratégico y a largo plazo para Grifols.

Si no tienes mucha idea de cómo empezar, en las siguientes líneas te damos todas las claves:

Consideraciones iniciales sobre Amazon

Amazon es una entidad que tiene sede social en los Estados Unidos. Fue lanzada al mercado por Jeff Bezos en 1994. Inicialmente se conocería como Cadabra, aunque más adelante se llamaría Amazon por su asociación con el Amazonas.

• Una gran parte de los beneficios que percibe están relacionados con los productos electrónicos e informáticos (un 68 %).
• Otra gran parte de su facturación le lega de productos culturales (como libros, películas o videojuegos). Aproximadamente un 32 % llega desde estos artículos.
• También recibe una importante parte de sus beneficios de servicios relacionados con el desarrollo web.

Ahora que ya conocemos lo básico, vamos a profundizar en los estudios que nos dirán como invertir en Amazon.

Herramientas para estudiar el precio por acción 1) Estudio técnico

El estudio técnico se encarga de hacer un estudio en el tiempo de la evolución del precio por acción.

Las acciones de Amazon costaban alrededor de los 758 $ en julio de 2016. En tan solo un año se dispararon hasta alcanzar los 1020 USD (julio de 2017) y nuevamente volverían a subir al año siguiente, en 2018, cuando alcanzaron los 1817 $ en julio de ese mismo año.

En febrero de 2020 bate un récord en la trayectoria de las acciones al llegar a los 2134,87 $ por acción, pero lo vuelve a batir de nuevo el 28 de agosto de 2020, al alcanzar el hito de 3401,80 USD.

Pero el verdadero máximo lo marcaría el 9 de julio de 2021 al llegar a los 3719,34 USD.

2) Estudio fundamental

El estudio fundamental estudia otros factores además del precio por acción, como puede ser la viabilidad de la compañía, su nivel de deuda, si es capaz de hacerle frente, los objetivos que se ha planteado, hasta qué punto está alineada para conseguirlo, entre otros detalles de interés.

El mejor momento para invertir en acciones de Amazon es cuando el precio por acción haya bajado un poco, pero al mismo tiempo existan las señales que nos indiquen que va a subir próximamente.

Se requiere de mucho estudio para tener claridad en este asunto.

¿Cómo invertir en Amazon?

Aunque es posible comprar acciones de Amazon en una entidad bancaria, no es una opción muy recomendable. La mayoría de los bancos cobrarán altas comisiones que pondrán en riesgo tu bankroll (monedero virtual).

En lugar de eso, te animamos a confiar en un bróker online. Debes revisar si te permite trabajar con acciones de la compañía, investigar sus comisiones y gastos ocultos, además de tener en cuenta los testimonios y opiniones relacionadas con la plataforma.

Con toda esta información ya sabes cómo comprar acciones de Amazon y cuando puede ser el mejor momento para hacerlo.

Corporate sustainability pledges, from net zero to carbon negative to nature positive, are now a fixture of daily life. And I’m worried.

Having worked in sustainability for the past decade, I’ve had a front-row seat on the way these commitments often play out. And without deep business transformation, they won’t. I’m hearing a lot of noise around where businesses are planning to land, but not so much on what it will take to get there.

Could it be that business leaders don’t actually know what it will take to deliver on big commitments? Or are they struggling to tackle the obstacles to change? I’m observing a bit of both.

Regardless of the sticking point, leaders need to be honest with shareholders, internal teams, and consumers about the contradictions between current business models and sustainable production and consumption. Only then can leaders get real about what it will take to deliver on promises and start rolling up their sleeves to make it happen. Here’s what leading true transformation looks like.

Lead, uncomfortably

Most business leaders I know understand that they can’t reach their sustainability goals on a business-as-usual path. They’re well aware that the systems in place favor short-term gains over long-term value and resilience.

This uncomfortable reality may make playing the “not my problem” card seem tempting. That’s precisely where the problem lies. Now is not the time to shrug at things that seem outside of our control. Instead, leaders must dig deeper and challenge their long-held beliefs about doing business.

It’s time to start questioning the rules of business and getting answers: Will our current business model get us to the goals we’re promising to achieve? Which of our products or activities are at odds with our sustainability goals? Leaders need to normalize posing these existential questions at shareholder meetings, to board members, and among industry peers. This requires being honest and up-front about inconsistencies and how to address them.

And these conversations shouldn’t happen in a generational silo. In the classic clash of youth versus business leaders, it’s easy to use dismissal to mask discomfort. But what if leaders started leaning into the energy of the younger generations to find new solutions and common ground?

Practice—and advocate—what you preach

I see two sides of the corporate sustainability spectrum today. On one end are companies that have acknowledged reality: It’s impossible to engineer a road to sustainability without transforming the way we do business. On the other are those who give lip service to the sustainability movement while actively undermining progress within and outside of their company.

Presenting as a politically neutral business is a thing of the past. Consumers are demanding more than words; and they’re watching for inconsistencies. Leaders must tear down silos between sustainability departments and corporate influence teams, ensuring that those lobbying on behalf of the company are walking the talk, too. Companies that are truly committed to fulfilling their promises know that they must advocate for public policies that create the conditions necessary for change.

To fully embody their commitments and values, businesses should become sustainability activists and throw their weight behind causes they claim to care about—not as a performance or just when it’s convenient. Focusing on fixing the issues their operations impact directly is key. The companies that actively work to rewrite the rules of the game for the better are the ones that will maintain their license to operate and be the example for their peers. A true leader focuses not just on cleaning up their own yard but the entire neighborhood.

Get authentic inside and outside the company

Sometimes a “fake it ’til you make it” attitude can help you persevere through a challenge. This is not one of those times. By acknowledging the roadblocks faced and errors made, leaders can contribute to a culture of authenticity and build the trust to lead transformation.

It’s time to challenge traditional boundaries with competitors, too. It’s cliché but it’s true: We’re stronger when we work together. From the Science Based Targets initiative to the brand new Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions, I’ve seen initiatives like these skyrocket over the past decade. This trend is only going to accelerate, so companies that aren’t part of a pre-competitive collaboration should be asking themselves why that is. When an entire industry bands together, the remaining stragglers become increasingly hard to ignore, and excuses for going it alone increasingly slim.

When I look at the state of sustainability today—on the cusp of the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26)—I’m concerned. But I’m also optimistic, and I hope that business leaders are, too. The worst thing to do would be to pretend true sustainability is possible while secretly believing the challenges are insurmountable—because they aren’t.

The opportunities of shifting business to operate within the limits of our planet far outweigh any short-term costs or temporary feelings of discomfort. Those who recognize that big challenges call for more than big words—but big action and follow-through—are the ones who will make it to the other side.

Dimitri Caudrelier is the CEO of Quantis.

For over two decades, journalist Karen Given was the producer of a popular nationally syndicated sports radio show, Only a Game. Given identified so closely with this role that when she introduced herself, she would say: “Hi, I’m Karen, the executive producer of Only a Game.”

But when the show and her job came to an abrupt end in September 2020, Given found it hard to maintain a clear sense of identity. “With the loss of my job, I struggled to figure out who I was professionally,” said Given.  

Given’s feelings around job loss are not unique. Work provides many of us with much more than a paycheck. A job can offer recognition and status, instill a feeling of belonging, and reinforce self-worth, which together create a tangible professional and personal identity that can be hard to let go of when the position ends.  

Research shows that having a concrete “work identity”—which can be defined as how important your job is and who you believe yourself to be professionally—can be closely tied to your well-being. In a Gallup poll, unemployed Americans were more than twice as likely as those with full-time jobs to say they had been treated or were being treated for depression, and this situation has become endemic during the coronavirus pandemic as millions of Americans have experienced unemployment.

Regardless of the reason why you lost your job, here are some steps you can take to regain your sense of self:

Grieve the loss of your work identity

As a coach who works with people in job or career transition, I’m acutely aware of the intense feelings of anger, sadness, and abandonment that generally accompany a layoff. After having a go-to response to the icebreaker question, “what do you do for a living?” it’s hard to be forced by circumstances to let go of the pithy answer that helps us position ourselves in other people’s worlds, as well as our own.

When a job that you once identified with becomes a thing of the past, it’s essential to acknowledge your feelings about the loss, and not dismiss or hide from them. As with any kind of grief, before you can move forward, you must first mourn what you’re leaving behind.

Reframe the situation

When I spoke with Given about how she was handling the recent end of her long-time radio role, she explained that this year has been all about reframing the way that she looks at things. “When I start to get sad about losing the job I loved, I remind myself that the commute was really terrible,” says Given. “When I start to worry about what the future will hold, I challenge myself to think of the possibilities.” 

She emphasized that while uncertainty is scary, it also creates a blank canvas on which you can build something new. “I can no longer do the thing I’ve always done, which gives me the freedom to try the things I’ve always wanted to do,” says Given. “With the entire world upside down [due to COVID-19], could there be a better time to take a risk?” 

Reach out to your network

Social support is crucial in times of change and challenge. Isolation and loneliness are compounding factors that can accompany job loss, so it’s essential to connect with others in the wake of a layoff.

When my client Josh lost his job in a biotech company due to a merger, he asked people in his network to recall a time they had seen him at his best. He also invited them to identify the skills he was using to help him home in on his most marketable capabilities. Doing so allowed Josh to reconnect to supportive people and regain his footing during an incredibly difficult time.

Return to your values

Values are fundamental beliefs or principles about what you stand for, and can be considered the “essence” of who you are. Values—such as creativity, honesty, collaboration, personal development, and autonomy—underpin career decisions over the long term, though how you express those values and rank their relative importance can shift over time.

While values can help you find meaning and fulfillment in your work, they transcend your work identity and can also be expressed in many contexts outside of work. They’re another lens from which to view yourself during a career transition. That’s why grounding yourself in your values and vision is a powerful way to navigate uncertainty and regain a sense of self in the wake of a job loss. 

Brad, one of my clients who ran social media marketing for his tech company, was always interested in mentoring younger employees—particularly those who had fewer opportunities growing up that resulted in less exposure to the business world. Brad’s value of helping others laid the foundation for exploring other possible career options. His passion for diversity and inclusion guided him to start a consultancy aimed at assisting tech companies that wanted to diversify their engineering organizations. 

Do something unrelated to work

To regain your sense of identity after a layoff, it’s important to incorporate some activities that are potentially less frustrating and rejection-filled than looking for a job. When I coach professionals in transition, I’ve often observed how volunteering helps many rediscover a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Taking on a volunteer role can broaden your networks, and in some cases leads to concrete job opportunities. Most importantly, engaging in activities that are important to you and that help others can foster a sense of confidence, competence, and control over your life—qualities that may have felt shaky after being let go.

Job loss can usher in a corresponding loss of identity and shaken self-image—but keep in mind that what makes you unique isn’t determined solely by your job title or the organization to which you used to belong. Your work isn’t who you are; it’s just what you do. If you’re open to it, losing a job can reveal possibilities to explore sides of yourself that lay dormant until now.

Susan Peppercorn is an executive transition coach, corporate speaker, and writer. Download her free Career Fit Index.

Aredhel:

Sabe porque me llama la atención? Porque previamente a cobas jamás tuvieron un periodo de dos años perdiendo dinero.

Desde luego, tanto Cobas como Azvalor (Azvalor sí tuvo un inicio fulgurante antes de que Cobas se estableciera) han elegido, en términos generales, para sus carteras los valores que menos aprecian los mercados y que han caído durante años contra los índices. A pesar de todo, en general, ¿estarán bien valoradas?

Remote work has oodles of benefits for employers and employees alike: a larger talent pool, less overhead, flexible scheduling, and more.

There are some drawbacks, though, especially for hybrid companies with a mix of remote and in-office workers: potential communication issues, isolation for remote people on in-person teams, and culture challenges.

To address such drawbacks, of course, we have the now-ubiquitous video meeting. And while the technology’s come a long way, it’s still tough to replicate the feeling of being inside an office, from casual catchups to in-person meetings. Open offices, despite its many, many, many flaws, do offer a major benefit: the possibility of open dialogue between team members at all times.

Now, the race is on to build video technology that replicates constant communication between teams. Here’s a look at some interesting contenders.

Owl Labs: Meeting Owl 360-degree smart camera

Have you ever been on the remote end of a call that’s got 12 people packed in a distant, echo-y conference room with a corner-mounted camera so they all look like tiny smudges and you can’t tell who’s talking? If you plan to stay remote while your coworkers head back to the office, this unpleasant experience is in your future.

That’s a problem Owl Labs is trying to solve with its line of Meeting Owl cameras. There are two models—the $799 Meeting Owl (designed for small rooms) and the $999 Meeting Owl Pro (designed for large rooms)—which both look like… well, owls, if they’d been designed by Isaac Asimov. Their neatest trick (aside from being adorable): capturing videoconferences in 360 degrees.

[Animation: courtesy of Owl]That might not sound super exciting at first, until you realize that you can see everyone in the room up in a video strip that runs along the top of your window, and then a larger spotlight video section below that intelligently focuses on whoever’s talking. Better yet, if multiple people are talking, it’ll slide them in and out of the main video section, making it feel more like you’re in a real-life meeting.

The cameras integrate with popular videoconferences services such as Zoom, Slack, GoToMeeting, and others, and can be connected in pairs if you need to cover cavernous conference rooms.

Around: Bring Your Own Camera

Not everybody has the cash for an $800 owl-shaped camera, of course, but camera-equipped phones, tablets, and laptops sure aren’t hard to find.

The idea behind Around—which is currently free in public beta—is that sometimes the best camera-and-mic setup is the one closest to your face, regardless of where your workspace is located.

Imagine a team that needs to jump into a war-room of sorts to hammer out last-minute details on a launch. Everyone fires up Around, and people in the group show up in little video circles that block out distracting backgrounds and follow people’s heads as they speak. It makes collaborating via video easy because it gets the actual video part of it out of the way.

[Animation: courtesy of Around]Around leverages AI to frame your face in a small circle and to auto-mute common unwanted background noises like sirens, pets, and HVAC noise. It integrates with Slack and is available on just about every major platform as well: Windows, Mac, and Linux, plus iOS and Android, and directly via popular web browsers.

The company says it’ll always offer a free option, but paid plans look set to roll out later this year, so get in now while the gettin’ is good.

Video Window: Always-on common spaces

OK: you’re in the office and you need to speak with your remote co-worker on the double. Email’s too slow. Chat won’t get the context across. Phones are too old-timey.

Walk up to your company’s Video Window, which streams a constant view of the office for remote workers, and tap on the image of the remote worker you need to talk to.

On the remote worker’s end, the Video Window Remote app is up on a secondary monitor or tablet with the video turned on and the audio turned off. This way, he or she can see what’s going on in the office and notice when someone’s walking up to chat.

[Image: courtesy of Video Window]The remote worker can also just unmute to try to get someone’s attention or tap the “knock” icon, which makes a knocking sound on the office Video Window. Multiple in-office Video Windows can be connected together as well, making for quick site-to-site communication, and there’s a cool-looking whiteboarding feature.

Now, this is a software-based offering from the company Collaboration Squared, but you’ll need to supply some slightly-specialized hardware for an office-based Video Window: namely, a touch-capable display, computer, and webcam.

Obviously the bigger, faster, and higher-resolution the better—the company recommends a 65-inch or larger touch display (which cost thousands), Intel i5 or up processor, and 4K webcam—but does mention that it’ll run on commodity hardware, even using just a mouse and keyboard instead of touch if you’re on a budget.

Pricing is a flat $2,400 per office device, per year. The Video Window Remote app, which runs on standard tablets, phones, and computers, is free.

Earlier this year, Barack Obama became the first American president to launch a podcast. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Almost every high-profile job these days, ranging from movie star to talk-show host, is now technically a stepping stone to society’s true highest rung: podcast host. But among eligible former presidents who might have first crossed the rubicon, Obama seems particularly suited to it. Renegades: Born in the U.S.A.—the show he created with Bruce Springsteen, a sort of ne plus ultra of dad bait—hails from Higher Ground, the production company the 44th president formed with his wife Michelle (who also has a podcast), to facilitate their creative ambitions. The Springsteen collab joins a robust slate of other projects in a burgeoning media empire that spans books, TV shows, feature films, live events (pre-COVID-19), and an upcoming stint hosting Saturday Night Live. (That last part isn’t true, at least as far as Fast Company knows, but who wouldn’t believe it?)

[Photo: Renegades: Born in the USA]This year has seen Higher Ground transform from what might have initially been written off as a vanity production shingle—Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was a big supporter of the Obamas, and his wife served as Ambassador to the Bahamas from 2009 to 2011—into a rather active content creation hub. They released one kids series in the spring, another on July 4, and have yet another scheduled for next month. In addition, the Kevin Hart feature Fatherhood, acquired on the festival circuit early this year, bowed in June. At least seven more projects have also been announced recently and are in development.

Although most Hollywood producers follow their taste for material or work within a defined genre, there are a few who have sought to create a niche out of developing socially redeeming material. Perhaps the best known of these is Participant Media, which builds impact campaigns around the films it makes, such as RBG and John Lewis: Good Trouble. Another upstart production company, One Community, which made Michael B. Jordan’s Just Mercy, has positioned itself as “impact first,” using its content to amplify the change it wants to see in the world.

What change does the President turned mogul—and his ascendant mega-influencer spouse—want to achieve with this torrent of projects? Does the Obamas’ output add up to more than just extra tiles on the Netflix homepage?

Producer-in-Chief

At the beginning of his post-presidency era, Obama seemed to split the difference between his two immediate predecessors. Like Bush, he withdrew from the spotlight—with the exception of an eyebrow-raising kite-surfing vacation on Richard Branson’s private island—and into writing his presidential memoir. Like Clinton, he took high-paid speaking gigs, some of them to Wall Street firms, earning as much as $400,000 a pop, and shoring up funds for his foundation.

Anyone curious about what he would do long-term, though, could only speculate.

“I’m spending a lot of time thinking about the most important thing I could do for my next job,” he told a panel of young community organizers in April 2017. “[There are] all kinds of issues that I care about and issues I intend to work on. But the single most important thing I can do is help in any way [to] prepare the next generation of leadership to take their own crack at changing the world.”

This declaration is vague and positive in a quintessentially Obama-esque way. A lot of things could be described as “preparing the next generation of leadership.” Lining up more Wall Street speeches could technically qualify. To which version of preparation would the former president devote himself as a civilian?

The answer arrived in May 2018.

[Photo: The White House]Just two months after revealing a joint book deal with Penguin Random House worth $65 million, Barack and Michelle Obama announced their deal with Netflix. For an undisclosed sum, the former first couple would be cultivating and shepherding scripted and unscripted series, documentaries, and feature films. Although this would appear on its face an unconventional post-presidential career pivot, with a reality-television host in the White House ripping up the presidential playbook, perhaps the post-presidential formula of ranch retirement and occasional shuttle diplomacy deserved a shakeup, too.

Americans have always been curious about their presidents’ tastes, but no one had quite leaned into that bit of voter relatability more than Obama, with the president regularly releasing summer reading lists and end-of-the-year playlists. Producing content of his own was theoretically a fitting follow-up project for a presidency marked by mavenhood.

In both an early NYT scoop about a potential Netflix deal, and the eventual announcement confirming it, Michelle Obama and senior advisor Eric Schultz used identical language to describe how the former First Couple has “always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire.”

All politicians rely on storytelling in one way or another, spinning yarns about themselves, their constituents, and the entire world. Obama, however, is rare among politicians in that he was already the author of a memoir before he ever held office—a literary one to boot, not just the typical boilerplate campaign tome. Storytelling was key to his early success as a politician, and a lens through which to refract his worldview.

“I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story. That I owe a debt to all of those who came before me. And that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible,” he famously said at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

But how would he and Michelle use the power of storytelling to inspire people in the Trump era?

Higher Brow

The only hint anyone had about what to expect from the Obamas’ output at that point is their production company, Higher Ground, which name-checks a universally beloved Stevie Wonder track and nods to Michelle Obama’s most famous quote. It would be another year before Netflix revealed anything further.

In late April, 2019 the streaming service announced an initial set of offerings. These included: American Factory, a blunt look at the incompatibility of a globalized economy; Waffles + Mochi, a children’s show about the virtues of eating healthily, featuring puppets, celebrities, and occasionally Michelle Obama; and Bloom, a class-focused drama set in the fashion world of post-WWII New York City. It looked as though Higher Ground’s material would offer insight into the challenges facing Americans, further plumb the Obamas’ personal interests, and provide some high-brow fun as well. Essentially, it would be a line drive right down the middle.

The rollout of these projects so far has been marked by a kind of frictionless efficiency uncommon to government matters. American Factory won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2020, blasting a prestige gloss over the entire enterprise. Michelle Obama continued her transformation into a trusted guru of social-consciousness, launching The Michelle Obama Podcast on Spotify and adapting her bestselling memoir, Becoming, into a Netflix special. Higher Ground also began acquiring more features at film festivals, including Hart’s Fatherhood, and the forthcoming Worth, a patriotic tear-jerker about the 9/11 Victims Fund starring Michael Keaton. The company’s slate of originals is rapidly expanding as well, and now includes a series of love stories about Black teenagers, a feature adaptation of the Pakistani-penned bestseller Exit West, and a kids show applying the Doc McStuffins formula to scientists.

Some of these projects are exactly what you’d expect. We The People, a Schoolhouse Rock update released earlier this summer, and which I need not even mention features Lin-Manuel Miranda, is more on-the-nose than rhinoplasty. Civic-minded kumbaya for kids. In one episode, a young woman registering voters is slightly intimidated by a young man decked out in hip-hop regalia . . . only for him to smile, revealing bejeweled gold fronts that read “I voted.”

Some of the upcoming projects are head-scratchers. The G-Word, a loose adaptation of Michael Lewis’ The Fifth Risk, caused a stir in 2020 when Insider incorrectly characterized it as “a Netflix comedy series about the ‘chaos’ that occurred when Trump came into power.” This description had the Obamas taking a momentary break from going high, to fire back at their chief antagonist. It didn’t seem like a particularly wise move, and definitely not a necessary one, but it was at least an interesting direction for the pair to go in. The show’s actual logline—a part documentary, part sketch-comedy look at how government really works, hosted by Adam Ruins Everything creator Adam Conover—sounds like a joke premise Ben Shapiro might suggest when talking about what liberals watch on TV.

The Brand called Obama

The most representative project in Higher Ground’s repertoire is probably Overlooked, an anthology series examining some of the more incredible lives left out of the obituary section of the New York Times over the years. If there’s a unifying theme to the Obamas’ itinerary overall, it’s an emphasis on drawing attention to lives and perspectives too often left out of the American entertainment landscape: devoted single Black fathers, refugees, disabled athletes, and America’s indigenous population. Getting these kinds of stories into the televisual bloodstream is a noble cause. Most of them, however, don’t scan as hidden gems found in the rough but rather obviously worthy projects that would have found homes anyway. Why do they need a Presidential Seal of Approval, if not for that?

Perhaps the Obamas are just voracious consumers of content as well as canny curators, who find being on the supply side “a more palatable way to make money than the paid-speech circuit,” as the former president reportedly said. The pair has plenty of other ways to generate revenue, of course—albeit mostly in other parts of the media business. They can parlay a book into an arena tour, a podcast into a book, and a book into a Young Adult version of itself. But branching out into film and television production is not only lucrative, it’s also perhaps something in between fulfilling job and brand-burnishing exercise. It’s a chance to program an official Obama summer watchlist totally from scratch.

This collaboration has been carefully packaged, however, as a matter of purpose; a mission to inspire through storytelling. In reality, it’s more like a holistic, worldview-signifying imprimatur. Any loftier framing than that is just a testament to the power the Obamas’ storytelling has to inspire themselves.

Noticias bolsa España -

Horas después del asalto a Kabul por parte de los talibanes, el Ibex 35 a media sesión sigue la estela bajista de las bolsas asiáticas impactadas negativamente por la batería de cifras macro publicadas en China. El euro se deprecia frente al dólar, el petróleo baja y las bolsas europeas también caen.