Masks in black, the perennial fall-back for the stylish, are the new staple in the fashionable quarters of the French capital. Masks are now compulsory on public transport in Paris and the city’s fashionable residents have ditched the mass-market pale blue surgical ones for a dash of coronavirus chic.

When President Emmanuel Macron visited a school wearing a navy-blue mask with a small French flag on the trim, its manufacturer was flooded with calls the day after. The manufacturer, Bonneterie Chanteclair, had sent the president a mask on the off chance he might wear it.

The firm is now launching the model in 44 different shades; a limited edition of it with Breton stripes sold out in half an hour. Designer Erik Schaix sells couture masks in charcoal-grey denim and batik print. Celebrities are also jumping on the mask bandwagon.

Supermodel Cindy Crawford has “entertained” her 4.8 million Instagram followers with a tie-dye twinset of a mask and matching top. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who runs the wellness website Goop, has also matched her mask to her outfit – not to commute in, of course, but for a trip to the farmers’ market.

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own action.”

Dalai Lama

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“I am a marvelous housekeeper… Everytime I leave a man I keep his house!”

Zsa Zsa Gabor

It’s Been A Good Month For

Some UK and US hedge funds reaped a combined €1bn profit last month after their bets against German payment processor Wirecard, paid off with its dramatic collapse. Chris Hohn’s TCI Fund Management and David Greenspan’s New Yorkbased Slate Path Capital are among the winners, making estimated gains of €193m and €220m respectively in just a week.

Bosses at many FTSE-listed companies are back on full pay after taking a pay cut due to the pandemic’s effect on business. Foxtons, Persimmon, Severn Trent, Burberry and Bakkavor are among the companies to reinstate full salaries, a decision that has attracted scrutiny from investor groups and high-pay campaigners, particularly after the UK revealed the largest drop in gross domestic product on record and with millions of jobs at risk.

It’s Been A Bad Month For…

Kylie Jenner’s beauty company is being sued in a fresh blow for the reality show star, coming shortly after she was stripped of billionaire status by Forbes. The 22-year old’s beauty brand, Kylie Cosmetics, is being sued by Seed Beauty, which formerly produced her products. They claim Jenner’s recent deal with make-up group Coty, to whom she sold a 51% stake in her company for $600m, will leak their “tricks of the trade” to a competitor.

The slashing of interest rates to record lows of 0.1% has created the worst environment for savers since the financial crisis. In January the average individual savings account (Isa) paid 0.81%, but now the average rate is just 0.37%. The first half of 2020 now represents the poorest six-month period for savings since 2009.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL HAPPINESS HAPPENS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear streetwise Customer,

  If you were to design a money-making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, here is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…

. You can work exclusively from home and never have to leave the house  

.  As long as you have a computer with internet access, you’re in business  

.  The method behind it doesn’t just cope with turmoil and uncertainty…it positively thrives on it. 

.  You can get started and be making money in days rather than weeks or months. 

.  Start-up costs are virtually zero. 

  How do I know this is perfect for now?

  Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse. He started ‘self-isolating’ years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland…

  He didn’t have to self-isolate…he just chose to!

  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months…or even if you just like the idea of doing that…then this is perfect for you.  

  Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities. Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.

Click HERE for more information

 Kind Regards

  John Harrison

      
   P.S  Uncertain and volatile times are precisely when this works 
        best. What other opportunity can you say that about

www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

Businesses that have borrowed relatively modest sums through the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) could dramatically reduce their interest costs by, switching to the Bounce Back loans facility.

Ministers launched the Bounce Back scheme several weeks into the Covid19 crisis, responding to criticisms that smaller businesses were struggling to access cash through CBILS. By then, however, many businesses had secured finance through the original scheme. 

Both schemes are administered through the banks, with the state underwriting the loans. Crucially, however, Bounce Back loans come with an interest rate set by the government at 2.5% a year, while with CBILS, lenders set their own rates; many are charging 6% a year or more! The maximum Bounce Back loan is £50,000, so for businesses that have borrowed less than this from CBILS, it makes sense to switch.

The Bounce Back loan scheme isn’t open to businesses that have already secured finance from CBILS, but there is an exception for firms borrowing in order to pay off a CBILS loan in full. Your bank should be able to help you refinance.

The government has pledged to keep the Bounce Back loan scheme open for applications until 4 November. Both Bounce Back loans and CBILS carry no interest charges or fees in year one, so for businesses confident about repaying CBILS there may be no need to switch.

However, for any business that expects to begin incurring interest, moving scheme makes more sense. On the maximum £50,000 Bounce Back loan, interest charges will cost £1,250 a year from year two onwards. Assuming an interest rate of 6%, the same loan from CBILS will cost £3,000 a year to service

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

C S Lewis       

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are cheese.”

Luis Bunuel

Shares We’re Buying This Month 

While Main Street retail banks contend with shaky consumer confidence and ultra-low interest rates, the trading arms of investment banks help them to profit from loose monetary policy.

Surging corporate debt issuance is good for the underwriting operation and merger activity may pick up later this year. Unpredictable earnings and the Malaysian 1MDB scandal remain problems, but Goldman Sachs Group appears well-placed to profit from the current market environment. 

Struggling high streets and empty offices mean that real-estate companies are firmly out of fashion, but that has created some serious bargains to be had. Harworth Group, the land and property regeneration group trades on a reasonable 35% discount to net asset value.

Harworth invests in about 100 residential, industrial and logistics sites across the north of England and the Midlands. That diversification should leave it well-placed however the postpandemic future of work and e-commerce ultimately develops.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL EMOJI DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I’ve already written to you a couple of times about this cash generating system.

This time though, I’m not going to tell you how good this is. I’m going to let our customers do it instead!

Here are just some of the comments we’ve received recently…

(Incidentally, all of these comments are completely unsolicited and the original copies are held on file at our offices and are available for inspection.)

To get the full story take a couple of minutes to read visit the website below and read the message from David Houghton who figured this out. It reveals this extraordinary opportunity in detail.

Take A Look Now By Visiting:

www.streetwisenews.com/AB

There is absolutely No Risk to you in taking a look at this. The whole
thing comes with a full Cast Iron Money Back Guarantee.  All the best for now

John Harrison
Streetwise Publications

PS. Just for good measure here are Mike Pears comments on the A Minus B System:

“O.k. – here are my updates on the A-B System up to my trading week 51. These are all to level stakes. 

Week 40 – w/c 16/2 – loss of 16 pts
Week 41 – w/c 23/2 – profit of 37 pts
Week 42 – w/c 2/3 – loss of 2 pts
Week 43 – w/c 9/3 – profit of 80 pts
Week 44 – w/c 16/3 – profit of 37 pts
Week 45 – w/c 23/3 – profit of 75 pts
Week 46 – w/c 30/3 – profit of 38 pts
Week 47 – w/c 6/4 – loss of 51 pts
Week 48 – w/c 13/4 – profit of 62 pts
Week 49 – w/c 20/4 – profit of 30 pts
Week 50 – w/c 27/4 – profit of 144 pts
Week 51 – w/c 4/5 – loss of 45 pts

Total Level stakes profit is 1,821 pts which averages 36.42 per week… A £1,000 starting bankusing 0.1% stakes, now stands at £5,569.”

With investors fleeing for safe haven assets, now is the time for gold to shine. Diamonds, on the other hand, have lost their sparkle. In March, when stocks were plumbing new depths in the coronavirus crisis, the price for a single diamond carat fell by 6.8%. But the woes facing the industry actually go beyond the current crisis. Over the year, the single-carat price is down by 13.1%.

What’s going on?

Well, for starters, Covid-19 has exacerbated an existing problem. India, where 90% of the world’s rough diamonds by volume are cut and polished, is in lockdown. That has resulted in a 50% drop in diamond exports from this processing hub.

For an industry that depends on being able to dig jewels out of a mine from Canada to Angola, fly them to the trading hubs of Antwerp or Botswana, and sell them to wealthy, hopeful consumers from London to New York and Beijing, coronavirus has been a fiasco.

With shops shut and people losing their jobs in, say, the US, the world’s biggest consumer market for diamonds, but also in Europe, and China, where the market is growing, diamond prices can be expected to fall further – by 15% or more this year.

De Beers cancelled its latest sale after witnessing a 28% year-on year drop in sales, and it’s been a similar story for its rivals.

But even before the coronavirus outbreak, the market had been in a sorry state owing to a glut, coupled with declining marriage rates among millennials. London-listed Petra Diamonds, already crippled by debt, has also had scant recent success at its famous Cullinan diamond mine in South Africa.

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.”

            Napoleon Hill         

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices; take it or leave it.”

Buddy Hackett

That, in itself, wouldn’t be so bad for diamond merchants. Scarcity in other markets leads to higher prices. But the diamond market has had to contend with “fakes”.

In fact, artificial diamonds are not fakes – they have the same chemical and physical properties as their earth-born brethren. They are just “grown” in a lab. They are also cheaper to produce, free of any historical and ethical taint and, in theory, are potentially greener. 

Colour, in the literal sense, is important for collectors, as coloured diamonds are among the most sought-after – and few more so than the pink diamonds from Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in western Australia. Most mines will be lucky to unearth one pink in the entire haul; at Argyle, it’s about one pink carat for every 1,000 carats mined.

They are also consistently of the highest caliber, with a strong, pure, intense shade. But the mine, which gave the world around 90% of its pink diamonds, has given up all but its last 150 or so carats. It is set to close later this year.

Demand has been rising, however. So coveted are Argyle pink diamonds that it’s been rumoured Rio Tinto could end up selling the Argyle name.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL GORGEOUS GRANDMA DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I’ve already written to you a couple of times about this cash generating system.

This time though, I’m not going to tell you how good this is. I’m going to let our customers do it instead!

Here are just some of the comments we’ve received recently…

(Incidentally, all of these comments are completely unsolicited and the original copies are held on file at our offices and are available for inspection.)

To get the full story take a couple of minutes to read visit the website below and read the message from David Houghton who figured this out. It reveals this extraordinary opportunity in detail.

Take A Look Now By Visiting:

www.streetwisenews.com/AB

There is absolutely No Risk to you in taking a look at this. The whole
thing comes with a full Cast Iron Money Back Guarantee.  All the best for now

John Harrison
Streetwise Publications

PS. Just for good measure here are Mike Pears comments on the A Minus B System:

“O.k. – here are my updates on the A-B System up to my trading week 51. These are all to level stakes. 

Week 40 – w/c 16/2 – loss of 16 pts
Week 41 – w/c 23/2 – profit of 37 pts
Week 42 – w/c 2/3 – loss of 2 pts
Week 43 – w/c 9/3 – profit of 80 pts
Week 44 – w/c 16/3 – profit of 37 pts
Week 45 – w/c 23/3 – profit of 75 pts
Week 46 – w/c 30/3 – profit of 38 pts
Week 47 – w/c 6/4 – loss of 51 pts
Week 48 – w/c 13/4 – profit of 62 pts
Week 49 – w/c 20/4 – profit of 30 pts
Week 50 – w/c 27/4 – profit of 144 pts
Week 51 – w/c 4/5 – loss of 45 pts

Total Level stakes profit is 1,821 pts which averages 36.42 per week… A £1,000 starting bankusing 0.1% stakes, now stands at £5,569.”

Pasta was not eaten.

Curry was a surname. 

A takeaway was a mathematical problem.  

A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.  

All potato crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not. 

Rice was only eaten as a milk pudding.

Calamari was called squid and we used it as fish bait.

A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.

Brown bread was something only poor people ate.

Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking.  

Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.

Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded
as being white gold. Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.  

Fish didn’t have fingers in those days.  

Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.

None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.

Healthy food consisted of anything edible.

People who didn’t peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.

Cooking outside was called camping.

Seaweed was not a recognised food.

“Kebab” was not even a word, never mind a food.  

Prunes were medicinal.

Surprisingly, muesli was readily available, it was called  cattle feed.

Water came out of the tap.

If someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it, they would have become a laughing stock!!

But the one thing that we never ever had on our table in the sixties …..”Elbows or Phones”

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

       Thomas Jefferson 

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“The first time I see a jogger smiling, I’ll consider it.”

Joan Rivers

New Way’s To Profit A Love Of Whiskey

Investing in whisky has never been easier from the comfort of your home, even when it’s still in the cask. Whisky Invest Direct is a platform that was launched five years ago by the people behind gold and precious-metals dealing service BullionVault.

Users simply log on and buy whisky that is still in the barrel and kept in the original distiller’s bonded warehouse. The idea is that, as it slowly ages, and other whiskies get consumed, your whisky appreciates in value.

Then, you sell it via the platform. Just like on BullionVault, there is a live order board that allows you to set your own asking price. Another option is to buy and sell whisky by the cask via an online auction.

In February, Cask Trade’s newly launched auction service, called auctionyourcask.com, held the world’s first live, online whisky auction dedicated to casks. Around 300 whisky lovers registered to take part, with roughly 100 samples sent out to prospective buyers in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL SLEEP UNDER THE STARS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I’ve already written to you a couple of times about this cash generating system.

This time though, I’m not going to tell you how good this is. I’m going to let our customers do it instead!

Here are just some of the comments we’ve received recently…

(Incidentally, all of these comments are completely unsolicited and the original copies are held on file at our offices and are available for inspection.)

To get the full story take a couple of minutes to read visit the website below and read the message from David Houghton who figured this out. It reveals this extraordinary opportunity in detail.

Take A Look Now By Visiting:

www.streetwisenews.com/AB

There is absolutely No Risk to you in taking a look at this. The whole
thing comes with a full Cast Iron Money Back Guarantee.  All the best for now

John Harrison
Streetwise Publications

PS. Just for good measure here are Mike Pears comments on the A Minus B System:

“O.k. – here are my updates on the A-B System up to my trading week 51. These are all to level stakes. 

Week 40 – w/c 16/2 – loss of 16 pts
Week 41 – w/c 23/2 – profit of 37 pts
Week 42 – w/c 2/3 – loss of 2 pts
Week 43 – w/c 9/3 – profit of 80 pts
Week 44 – w/c 16/3 – profit of 37 pts
Week 45 – w/c 23/3 – profit of 75 pts
Week 46 – w/c 30/3 – profit of 38 pts
Week 47 – w/c 6/4 – loss of 51 pts
Week 48 – w/c 13/4 – profit of 62 pts
Week 49 – w/c 20/4 – profit of 30 pts
Week 50 – w/c 27/4 – profit of 144 pts
Week 51 – w/c 4/5 – loss of 45 pts

Total Level stakes profit is 1,821 pts which averages 36.42 per week… A £1,000 starting bankusing 0.1% stakes, now stands at £5,569.”