May 18th, 2022 | ± 4 minutes
New here? The WC is a random mix of useful / interesting / notable stuff that gets pumped into your inbox every Wednesday.
And yes, we know it means toilet. I’ve had to live with these initials for 43 years.
Let’s go!
Table of Contents
Do we finally get to have flying cars?
I grew up in the 1980s, when both the Jetsons and Back to the Future made a lot of promises that they’ve not delivered on yet.
Looks like a lot of Venture Capitalists grew up in the 1980s as well, and they’re taking things into their own hands.
“We wanted flying cars. Instead we got 140 characters.” — Peter Thiel, 2013
— Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) March 18, 2021
What a difference 8 years makes!
In 2021, we’ve got 280 characters. And threaded tweet-storms. And – wait for it – flying cars! pic.twitter.com/Y3n1hdkpqt
That tweet above is Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn and VC) shilling for an investment of his, Joby Aviation.
And Reid isn’t the only VC going deep into flying cars. Last year, over $1.7B was pumped into the industry.
There are several startups promising flying cars, including Joby above. Volocopter is another.
But are they really flying cars? When I think of flying cars (as I often do), they’re something personal and purpose-built that can take you where you want to go, when you want to go there, and without any specialized training (yes, I know you need a drivers license for cars).
Something like, well, what you saw on the Jetsons (but maybe without the 1950s-style gender roles beating you over the head).
All these flying cars just look like over-engineered helicopters or airplanes that have been bastardised together with some spare parts from an automobile.
Despite the hype, I think we’re probably decades away.
Is Portugal the new Miami?
You can’t swing a dead cat these days without hearing about someone new moving to Portugal.
Portugal is the dream!
— Θ.DanRemy (@dan_roxanne) May 13, 2022
Good food, no taxes on crypto and the coastline. 😎💯
Crypto Bros love it for the lack of taxes on crypto gains. Rich people prefer it to Spain, because there’s no wealth tax. I love it for its world-largest floating solar farm.
People who like nice weather are in it for…well, just look:
In fact, several people investing in our ALTS 1 collection have mentioned they’re moving to Portugal. Last week, Alts CEO Stefan was there too, and all he could hear were American accents.
Even the mainstream media is picking up on it.
Combined with the Remote Work Mega Trend, all of the above makes for a perfect storm for the sunny European country. Lisbon’s golden visa programme is particularly well-suited to crypto bros (though perhaps 50% less than it was last week) and the wealthy.
But there could be trouble in paradise as locals begin to resent the influx of foreigners and the subsequent rise in housing prices.
Watch out, crypto bros!
JUST IN: 🇵🇹 Portugal’s Finance Minister plans to tax crypto
— Blockworks (@Blockworks_) May 16, 2022
It’s Wine Time
Last week, we shared a table showing wine’s performance during the last few recessions. TL;DR – it does pretty well. Shallower dips and limited correlation to the broad equity markets.
Investors are taking note, and there are now three solid platforms to buy and sell either fractions of blue-chip wines or the entire bottles (there are others as well).
There’s even a Kickstarter for vineyards.
Cult Wines is the latest entrant with their CultX platform, which is powered by wine-price aggregator Wine-Searcher.com.
There’s not much more than a landing page for now, but it will sit nicely alongside Vinovest’s new (and gorgeous) trading platform and Vint.co – the leading wine fractionalization platform.
Wine trading platforms have sometimes struggled in the past because investors have historically liked to cuddle and show off their collections, but times are changing.
It’s part of the trend towards increased transparency and reduced transaction costs across a number of alternative asset classes, and I’m here for it.
Was Idiocracy wrong??
For those who haven’t seen the classic film, let me introduce you to one of the best opening sequences of all time:
Basically, stupid people have a lot of kids, and smart people have very few kids. If that pattern holds for generations and generations, you’re going to have a population of very stupid people.
But it turns out that smarter (or better-educated anyway) women are starting to have more children than they used to.
Specifically, women who have higher university degrees (i.e. a Master’s, MBA, or PhD) now have more children than their BA-only counterparts. These well-educated women have around 40% more kids today than their 1980s counterparts.
Fertility fell with country wealth, female edu & FLFP.
— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) May 10, 2022
Those negative associations no longer hold.
Public provision & marketisation of childcare, as well as technology & involved fatherhood change the trade-offs.https://t.co/epgT7eqXf0 Fantastic & hugely important paper pic.twitter.com/ReAm7YWjPW
Increased governmental provision for childcare, especially in Europe, dads getting more involved, and the tech revolution are noted as the biggest causes for this.
The study also makes the very obvious point that the more a country spends on childcare (daycare subsidies, etc.), the more kids you’ll have, and the more women will be active in the labor force.
Is American residential property about to shit itself?
I’ve been banging on about this for months – America is about to have another housing crisis.
This feels important. https://t.co/xSBYFFiwvM
— Wyatt Cavalier (@itiswyatt) April 5, 2022
It looks like America’s Hat is leading the way. For the first time in two years, home prices in Canada have fallen – they’re off nearly 13%, which could be a leading indicator for the US.
What’s more, Americans who purchased homes off-plan last year are facing mortgage rates nearly double what they planned for. Thousands of potential homeowners will have to renege on their contracts.
Hello 2008, my old friend.
What caught your eye this week? Respond to an email to share it. We always read our inbox.
Cheers, Wyatt