December 23, 2020
📈 Your Package is Delayed
Good Morning. T'was the morning before Christmas, when all through your inbox; not a notification was pinging, not even a beep; the Out Of Office was scheduled, in hopes your colleagues would care, and The Peak is here to greet you with smart news and good cheer.
Markets
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Oil | 48.30 | 0.37% |
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Dollar | 0.78 | 0.0643% |
The latest news on the vaccine, right here conveniently located at the top of the email:
- Health Canada approved the Moderna vaccine and will to receive 168,000 doses by the end of the year.Â
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26,222 vaccine doses have been administered in Canada, as of writing.
- Pfizer and the US agree to a deal to supply the country with 100 million additional doses by the end of july, preventing a potential shortage.
Canada Post is struggling to keep up with demand ahead of Christmas (and my Mom's gift is still stuck at a sorting facility in Richmond).
Key number: With COVID restrictions on in-person shopping in full force, Canada Post has been struggling with the spike in online shopping.
- In a statement, Canada Post said that it is experiencing unprecedented amounts of mail and delivered 10 million parcels last week.
A perfect storm
In anticipation of increased demand, Canada post hired an additional 4,000 employees, expanded hours at post offices and recruited staff to work overtime but...
- Forced to practice social distancing, sorting centres are understaffed and creating a bottleneck in the supply chain.
Looking forward: Among all the chaos, Canada Post sees a silver lining. Their growth in package delivery is breathing life into the historically struggling Crown Corporation.
Zoom out: Moving forward, Canada Post expects increased parcel delivery to offset chronic loses in their mail business and put them on a path to profitability.
Here's a twist: Canadian Snowbirds in Florida will likely get vaccinated before they would in Canada.
What's happening: Florida Governor Ron De Santis rebutted a recommendation by the Centre for Disease Control that essential workers and the elderly get vaccinated after health care workers.
- Instead, the state will prioritize seniors (over 70) ahead of young essential workers.
So on their timeline, the state expects to fully vaccinate their 3 million residents over 70 in the next six weeks. When asked if this includes visitors and temporary residents, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said all Floridians, including visitors, will be eligible to receive a vaccine.
Big news for Snowbirds: The Canadian Snowbirds Association expects that 30% of its 110,000 members will travel down south this winter. And if seniors can skip the line, the Governor's announcement may attract even more.
Bottom line: Expect federal and provincial governments to face increased scrutiny if Canada starts to fall behind the US on the velocity of vaccinations.
Congratulations – you're a new home owner! You saved up enough for that down payment, secured a mortgage and found your dream home. What a ride!
Now what? You're probably working hard to decorate and taking care of any minor (or major) repairs. But do you know the one thing most new homeowners forget? Life insurance.
Why do you need life insurance? If something were to happen to you, your loved ones may not be able to pay their mortgage and could lose that new home you both love. It's uncomfortable to think about, but it could happen.
Thankfully, you can your loved ones with life insurance from PolicyMe.
We know how busy new homeowners are which is why we've created an online platform for life insurance that let's you apply for coverage in 10 minutes. That's faster than changing the fuse you just blew installing your new ceiling light.
Yesterday, the SEC initiated a lawsuit against the crypto currency Ripple. The court's ruling could set a precedence for how crypto tokens are treated by the SEC.
- The SEC is alleging that Ripple's founders orchestrated securities fraud worth $1.3 billion by failing to register the sale of their token (XRP) with the agency.
What is Ripple: Ripple is a blockchain technology that claims to be a faster and cheaper way for financial institutions to transfer money; for instance Spanish bank Santander uses Ripple to move money across borders.
- Ripple's decentralized blockchain is powered by their XRP token, which you can buy on popular crypto trading sites like BitBuy or Coinbase. As of writing, XRP is trading at $0.27 USD (a 30% drop from yesterday)
Is Ripple a security: That's the question that the cryptocurrency community is eagerly anticipating. In the past, the SEC has gone after other token based cryptos, including Canadian startup Kin, and the result has been multimillion dollar settlements.
- But Ripple is ready for a fight and they're using proceeds of the token sale to finance a lengthy legal battle.
In the past, SEC regulators have said that they don't consider Bitcoin and Ethereum securitis because of their decentralized nature. Ripple argues that their token is in the same category and should be considered as such.
Zoom out: The outcome of the SEC's case against Ripple will determine how the agency regulates cryptocurrencies in the future.
Talk about next level social distancing – yesterday, delivery startup Nuro got approval from the State of California to launch its commercial driverless service on public roads.
- In an upgrade from their previous permit, Nuro have permission to operate fully autonomous vehicles without a backup driver behind the wheel. They're the first company to receive this designation.
The future is here: Founded by two Google alums, Nuro operates a fleet of autonomous vehicles that do package delivery.
How it works: It's pretty simple: you get notified when your package arrives and go outside to pick it up from the vehicle without any human-to-human contact.
What does the permit get them? Nuro will begin by deploying their fleet of autonomous Toyota Prius' to dispatch packages in early-2021 but their ultimate goal is to transition to their purpose-built delivery bots (pictured above).
As the first company to receive this permit, Nuro is allowed to:
- Charge for their delivery services (which they previously couldn't do).
- Operate at a speed of 25 mph in fair weather conditions and on roads with speed limits less than 35 mph.
- Function with full autonomy without any backup driver.
Zoom out: Fully autonomous package delivery has a clearer path to commercial operations than autonomous companies planning to transport people. Nuro's launch in California is a big step towards rolling this out at scale.
The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a case brought by the Air Passenger Rights organization to force Canadian airlines to issue cash refunds for flights cancelled due to COVID-19.
Global News reports that 'thousands' of the over million stores hosted on Shopify are potentially fraudulent.
The NHL released the schedule for the 2020-21 season as the league continues to negotiate with provinces over a return-to-play plan.
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Cookie Monster: Here's an idea: If you're staying home for the holidays, why not bake a box of cookies and drop them off to a loved one.
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Don't Forget: There's less than 24 hours before Christmas and you forgot to get someone a gift... If that's you, here's a list of last-minute digital gifts. We recommend a Cameo by the lead singer of Simple Plan, Pierre Bouvier.
- Love in a Hopeless Place: In case you missed it, this is an absolutely wild story about a former Bloomberg reporters romantic relationship with 'pharma-bro' Martin Shkreli.